I grabbed this from a community on lj, but thought it was really useful.
For POI/Staff:
1. What kinds of research projects are you working on now? Where do you see your work going in the next few years?
2. What happens with a student's guaranteed departmental funding if he/she wins an external award?
3. What are you looking for in an incoming student? What are your expectations of students as they progress through the program?
4. What does a successful student in this program look like? What about an unsuccessful student?
5. Where do you place your Ph.D.'s? (I would ask about that faculty member's own students plus the students who graduate from the department/area as a whole.)
6. How often do you meet with your students?
7. Have any of your students ever come to you with a research idea that wasn't on your immediate research agenda or was a little outside of your specific interests? What happened?
8. Once you have a study idea, how long does it take to get it off the ground? How much time do you usually spend planning with your students? How long does the IRB process usually take?
9. How do you recruit participants, especially those from minority populations?
10. How common/easy is it for graduate students to collaborate with someone who isn't their primary adviser?
11. How long do most people take to finish the program? What are some common things that prevent people from finishing in this time frame?
For current students:
1. What are your favorite and least favorite things about this program?
2. What are your favorite and least favorite things about working with your adviser?
3. Why did you choose to come here?
4. What does a successful student in this program look like? What about an unsuccessful student? Can you give an example (current or former student, don't have to tell me their name)?
5. What do you do for fun? How much social time do you spend with other students in the program? How many of your friends are from outside the department?
6. How free to you feel to share your ideas with other graduate students? What about with other faculty members?
7. How supportive is your adviser of you publishing?
8. how often do you meet with your adviser? When you want to talk with him/her, how do you go about scheduling a meeting?
9. I've heard that grad school can be isolating. What is your experience of that? When that comes up for you, where do you go?
10. Have you ever had a research idea outside of your adviser's immediate research agenda? Did you pursue the idea and if so, how?
11. Do you need a car to get around?
12. What happens in this program to students who make a mistake (give the wrong answer in class, forget to randomize participants in one of their studies, etc.)?
13. How common/easy is it for graduate students to collaborate with someone who isn't their primary adviser?
14. What is the biggest challenge you have faced as a graduate student?
15. How long does it take to get a study off the ground?
16. Given my stipend, will I be able to live by myself?
17. What do you wish you would have known or understood better before coming here?
18. What neighborhoods are good/bad/cheap to live in?
Source:
http://community.livejournal.com/applyingtograd/2977795.html
