Questions To Ask When Looking For A Lab

Picking the right lab is one of the most important aspects of graduate school. This important decision can either teardown or lift up one’s graduate school experience. Based on one’s personality, it is very important to pick a research advisor that can take time to understand you and work well with you. One thing I mention to people is that you should try to pick someone who you think might serve as a good mentor to you. There are four important things one should put into consideration when looking for a lab. They are:

• Research advisor’s personality

• Project availability

• Metric of success

• Lab culture

Below are some questions that can guide you to get a better idea of the four things above when considering a lab. I have divided them into questions you can ask the professor (research advisor) and questions you can ask the students. I really hope these questions guide you to make the best decision when picking a lab.

For the Professors (Research Advisors)

1) Are you taking students this year?

2) What projects are available in the lab?

3) How many years do students spend in your lab before graduating?

4) How many students have passed through your lab?

5) Do students who graduate from your lab mostly end up in academia or industry?

6) How many papers do you expect your students to publish before graduating?

7) How often do your students publish papers?

8) What is your stance on paper authorship?

9) Do you expect your students to get fellowships?

10) How do you measure success?

11) Do you expect your students to always work in the lab?

12) Are you hands-on or off?

13) Do you meet with your students individually?

14) How often do you meet with your students? Weekly?

15) How do you deal with conflict between students?

16) Do you have industry connections?

17) Do you allow graduate students partake in internships?

For the Students

1) How does the professor behave to students?

2) Does he/she expect students to work in the lab during the weekends?

3) How does he/she react when experiments don’t go as planned?

4) Do you think he/she is a good mentor?

5) Do they encourage you? Or bring you down?

6) How fast does he/she respond to emails?

7) Is he/she helpful with projects? Or mostly busy?

8) Does he/she expect you to have funding?

9) How often are students allowed to take time off?

10) Does he/she understand the concept of mental health?

11) How do lab members behave towards each other?

12) Is the lab a collaborative environment?