How to decide on a PhD program in chemical engineering?

juillet
Thu, 26 Mar 2015 14:19:57 +0000

I’d be surprised if someone who got a PhD in chemical engineering in one of those programs does come to answer, much less all three. It would be great if they did, though!

Current graduate students, in my experience, are usually pretty honest when it comes to chatting about the program with prospective students. There may be some reluctance to say negative things in front of PIs - but not in front of classmates (we trash the PhD program together all the time). Nevertheless, if you still have additional questions that you feel weren’t answered, why not email one of the graduate students you talked to at the visit weekend and ask them some of those questions via email? Most of them probably wouldn’t mind answering a few questions.

That said, you’re unfortunately not going to have information on every angle and facet before you decide where to attend. Relationships with PIs are going to vary by PI, not by program - even if most of the PIs at Northwestern are warm and friendly, you could get the one crotchety one, or perhaps your personalities just don’t click. That assessment needs to be made after meeting the individuals. For the rest of those questions, whatever the graduate students told you at the visit weekend is probably pretty close to the truth. Grad students on average don’t have a super-vested interest in attracting prospective students to their program, so they have no reason to say that they work a 40-hour workweek when really everyone is pounding out 100 hours a week.