A good friend of mine was considering graduate school in astronomy and after 5 years in grad school (2 in physics and 3 in astronomy), I thought that I would now ask different questions than I had when I entered graduate school way back in 1993.  So as a result, I started to compile a list of questions I thought were important for my friend to ask as she considered different programs.  Yan Fernandez also contributed to this list and was a good sparring partner in distilling the important issues to consider:

-Kartik  Sheth, April 1998.

Career issues
 

• Is a tenured professor doing research on a subject in which I would want to do a thesis ? Is there more than just one person doing this - is there a nice group of grads / post-docs who enjoy working in this area or related areas.

• When I leave this department, will I get recommendation letters that will say things like, "best person to come out here in x years ?" or will they be "yeah - ok - whatever"... basically big fish in a small pond versus small (average) fish in a big pond question.

• What is the placement record of the dept. in the last 10-15 years. Are most of the students are getting p-docs and moreover getting respectable p-docs and fellowships ?  The recent grads are important because they are the future - they will sit on TACS and peer review committees and hiring committees etc.

• Do graduate students get to travel to meetings and coferences and observatories.  As you know it is often who you know just as much as what you know and this is becoming an integral part of getting a job in the future - Does the dept. encourage collaborations outside the dept. ?  This is a really important issue for me (KS).

• Will your thesis work in a given topic be recognized as being done under the supervision of someone respected and competent in the field ?

• Will you learn the skills necessary for survival in the job market out there - for example - will you have to learn to write proposals for refereed comments, will you have diverse skills - near IR, radio interferometry and high energy astro are fields I see as growth fields along with numerical simulations and modelling (KS) - will you have a chance to develop team skills, leadership skills etc...

• Are the graduate students happy in the dept ? How are they treated by faculty and staff ? How do they interact with each other (journal clubs, meetings, parties etc.? Really difficult to judge on visits but can have a major impact on your success...

• How do the faculty interact with each other - this can have a large impact on grads - if there is in-fighting grads and the program can suffer.

• Are graduate students listened to and are they solicited for information, feedback and improvements or are they not involved in the dept. going-ons ?

• Does the pay cover all expenses you might have ? Little things like University registration fees, health care, gym fees, etc. can drive you nuts when you are working only with limited funds - also what are the health insurance benefits ? Do they cover dental, prescription etc ?

• Is the place somewhere where you will be happy to live for 6 years - weather, people, surrounding area, and the campus itself are all important factors which will determine your happiness and well-being.

• What is the employment / funding situation over the summer for the first 2 years before you are on a RA ?

• What is the long term funding policy of the department? Do they gaurantee 6 yrs funding? 3 yrs? No gaurantees?

• What is the support staff like (librarians, computer support folks, administrative assistants, payroll folks) - these people can make your life easy or difficult on a day to day basis - These are the really key folks who keep things moving smoothly in a dept.

• How is TA life - how much work do you put in ? Is your role to be a mere cog in the wheel or is there a real committment to teaching - can you improve your skills as a teacher i.e. is there help avail. in the dept. and is there a committment towards this goal ?

• How are the courses and curricula structured... what are the qualifier requirements ? How attuned is the dept. (and the graduate students) to the job market out there ?