Essential Questions to Ask After Your PhD Interview: A Guide for Prospective Students
Discover key questions to ask faculty and students post-PhD interview to make an informed decision about your program. Tips from a clinical psychology PhD student.
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Questions to ASK at Graduate School Interviews PhD and Masters
Added on 09/03/2024
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Speaker 1: Thanks for checking out this video. Today is going to be super short. I'm just going to be sharing with you five questions that you should be asking after PhD interviews. After this intro, I'll get into it. Welcome to Grad Life Grind. If you're new to this channel, thank you for checking it out. And if you're already a subscriber, thanks for being back again. My name is Arielle, and I'm a PhD student in clinical psychology. And in this channel, I bring you information about the mental and talk about my journey as a PhD student. So at PhD interviews, you may be spending the entire day at a campus or an entire day online during virtual interviews now. So during PhD interview days, you may have multiple opportunities to ask questions to either faculty or students. For example, if you have a one-on-one interview with a faculty member or a student, at the end of the interview, they'll probably give you the opportunity to ask any questions that you may have. And you definitely want to be prepared. I also had a PhD interview where I asked all the questions the entire time. So the faculty member who interviewed me did not ask me a single question. They just told me that I can ask any questions that I want. And that's basically what guided the interview. That caught me super off guard. So now I always know to go into an interview with questions. So here are some questions you can ask either in one-on-one interviews, in group interviews, or even during some down time that you may have with current graduate students at that program. A lot of PhD programs are designed in such a way that you will be signing on to work with one faculty member for the duration of your time at the program. And if that's the case, then you should have lots of questions for the faculty member you're interviewing with because this is the person who's going to be your advisor for the entire time that you're there. So some questions that you can ask faculty members are, what is your mentorship style? What are your expectations for your students at each year of the program? For example, for clinical psychology, they're usually five to seven year programs. And faculty will usually expect different things from their first years than they expect from their fourth or fifth year students. So that is a great question as well. You can also ask faculty, what is the culture of the lab? What are the interactions between lab members and between students and the mentor? Is the lab super collaborative or do students in the lab work more independently? Another question that I think is really important to ask faculty members, whether it's the individual advisor that you're applying to work with, or really any faculty or administrator, this question is, how does the university handle issues of cultural competence or diversity? This is a pretty timely question. And for those who are studying clinical psychology, like me, it's a good question to ask because clinicians or future therapists, future psychologists of the world really should be culturally competent. It is part of our ethics code and it's super important to know how to work with clients from diverse backgrounds. If the doctoral program that you're applying to is research heavy, then you should also ask faculty, what are the opportunities to present at conferences? What are the conferences that the lab attends on a regular basis or on an annual basis? And what are the opportunities for co-authorship? Now, the questions that you ask current graduate students are going to be pretty different and you should be careful about the questions you ask because basically anytime you are interacting with someone from the university or program during interview day, you are technically still being evaluated. So even if you're not in a one-on-one interview, maybe there's downtime and you're talking to students, you're still technically being evaluated or watched. They may report your questions or answers back to the admissions committee and some students are on the admissions committee. So some questions to ask students could be more on the practical side. For example, where do students usually live? Is there on-campus housing? How does off-campus housing work? What is the cost of living in this area? What do students out here do for fun? Things like that. It's also really common for me as someone who works for admissions at my program to be asked about the financial situation or financial assistance. So it's common to ask current graduate students, how do you afford this program? Do you have grants, scholarships, stipends, etc? If not, then how are you able to get by? And it may seem like a personal question and you can let the student that you're asking know, like feel free not to answer this if you don't feel comfortable, but this is a huge decision and I would really like to know what your financial situation is, how are you financing this program? And most of the time students are happy to share how they're able to afford the program, whether they have loans, etc. But it's important information for you to know because a PhD program or whether to commit to a PhD program is a huge decision and it's a pretty long chunk of your life, five to seven years. So ask what you feel you need to know to make an informed decision about this program. You are interviewing and evaluating the program as much as they're evaluating you. I also recommend asking current graduate students, what does the university or the program do to support students' well-being? So some schools may have different student organizations or social events or self-care related events or resources that help students. So if the program offers that or if the university at large offers that, it's important for you to know. And it's also common for me to receive this question from applicants. They usually ask me like, what is work-life balance like in your program? And you're going to hear a range of answers. Some PhD students are really on top of everything and they're, they feel like they're on top of the world and that's awesome. And some PhD students are, will be honest with you and say it's super hard. I work 12 hour days, etc. But it's important for you to ask that question and to know what does a typical day look like for you as a graduate student in this program? And I recommend asking that typical day question to multiple students because a typical day for a first year student might look really different than the typical day for a fourth or fifth year student. I also recommend asking current graduate students about networking opportunities. Are they able to go to conferences? Does the program provide funding for them to go to conferences? Are there student organizations or professional organizations that they are part of and able to find opportunities from? That's a great question as well. And lastly, a super common and honestly great question to ask current graduate students is what sold you about this program? Why did you pick this program over others? And that will tell you kind of what the selling points for those students are. And honestly, I recommend asking the questions that I just mentioned to multiple people. So not just for the question about what a typical day is like, but for all of these questions. And you can ask, you can pick and choose whether to ask some of these questions to faculty, whether to ask them to faculty and students, whether to ask multiple students. You're fielding the people that you're interacting with for impressions about the program. You want to know are students happy there? Are faculty collaborative? Are faculty hands-on? Basically, are the faculty and students representative of what you are looking for? And of course, you should be clear for yourself about what you're looking for in a mentor, in a program, and in an environment or in a school culture. So you should be asking these questions knowing what appeals to you and what you want as well. So if you already got an interview for a PhD program, congratulations. If you're still waiting, hang in there. I know it is anxiety-inducing, it is scary, but it's also really exciting and it's a huge feat just to submit applications because that is a process that is super stressful as well. So I wish you the best of luck. I hope this video was helpful to you and if it was, I hope that you will hit the like button. I hope that you will subscribe and I hope that you'll also keep in touch with me on other platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. Again, my name is Arielle. My goal is to inform you, to inspire you, to spark an interest in you, and hopefully also entertain you. So I hope you'll check back soon.

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