What sorts of questions should prospective grad. students pose during a grad. school interview?

Graduate School
1

Hello, everyone! After applying to the University of Florida’s (UF’s) and the University of Central Florida’s (UCF’s) Counselor Education programs, I was extended an invitation to interview with UF and UCF! Since I’ve conducted a mock interview and received some valuable feedback on my interviewing skills, I think that I’m as prepared as I can be for my interview with UF, which is taking place tomorrow.

However, there is one thing that’s still bothering me, and it’s also a concern with my UCF interview. At the very least, for the UF interview, there’s going to be a 40-minute-long “Student Q & A” session. I’ve been trying to come up with some questions for it, but I’m having a really hard time doing so, especially considering that I don’t know who I’m going to be posing these questions to (I’m thinking that I’ll be posing them to faculty members, but that hasn’t been specified, so I’m unfortunately not 100% sure).

Basically, my question is the following: What sorts of questions should prospective graduate students pose during a graduate school interview? (I’ve come up with a couple of questions - about how many courses students usually take during a semester, if they normally find that amount of courses overwhelming, how they’ve funded their graduate school education [more specifically, if they’re mostly self-funded or not], and how as well as when students usually contact professors who they’re interested in conducting research with [because, as of now, I plan on completing a Master’s thesis]. However, I’m not sure if it’s appropriate to pose all of those questions or if some of them are best left out.)

Thank you all very much in advance for your help! Any and all advice is appreciated!

2

I think you are applying for a professional program rather than a research program, so my answers may not be the most relevant. I asked my grad programs about their plans and expectations for me - what they would have me researching, who with, how they expected me to coordinate coursework with research, how long they expected the program to last, etc. I asked the students what it was like studying there, what their publication expectations and realities were, why they chose that school and what they thought of their decision.

3

Ask them about placement/employment statistics. Even if they don’t have any hard statistics, you can ask them (faculty) for a sense of where students get jobs and how quickly it happens after graduation. What kinds of positions do they take? Are they mostly connected regionally, locally, or nationally? Since it’s a professional program you can also ask about internships - whether students get them, and where, and whether those internships have helped them find jobs or turned into jobs.

4

Thank you both very much for replying to my post so quickly and for your suggestions! I made sure to use some of them during the Q&A session that took place during my interview with UF (although I couldn’t ask all of my questions because other people were asking questions as well), and I’ll be sure to use them during my interview with UCF.