Physics GRE Discussion Forums

So I know theres a list of things to ask about the program, funding attrition etc but what about when meeting with potential research advisors. I feel like i dont have enough time to look up all their research and come up with good questions. I mean what do you ask besides "what do you work on?". Any general things to get information without having to already know the details of their work?

I asked about how many graduate students the professor has (or had) and what specifically the students were working on in relation to the professor's research interests to roughly gauge what type of project one would have if he or she worked with that professor. This was helpful for me at least.

depends on the school... at UT i asked the same as dustdevil and then just asked them what they were expecting out of a grad student, at Penn State the main question was basically why the *** i should come to amish country plus the expectations question. it depends on the prof, like i drilled the prof at penn state about his alma mater madison because i am going there next week

evilclaw2321 wrote:So I know theres a list of things to ask about the program, funding attrition etc but what about when meeting with potential research advisors. I feel like i dont have enough time to look up all their research and come up with good questions. I mean what do you ask besides "what do you work on?". Any general things to get information without having to already know the details of their work?

"Tell me about your research" gets you a long way, but when I was speaking with people I was interested in possibly working with, I also asked if they were taking students next year and how many, and I asked how long students typically work with them before getting their degree and where they go afterward. In addition to finding out what kind of job/postdoc you could get afterward, it's a good way to see how much the professor knows about their students, and you can see their attitude when they talk about them.