Why choosing a PhD matters
Choosing a PhD position is one of the most important career decisions you’ll make, yet many students spend far more time preparing their applications than evaluating whether a position is actually right for them. A PhD lasts several years and shapes your research expertise, professional network, and future opportunities.
When I was deciding between several PhD offers, I found it difficult to compare them objectively. That’s what led me to build the framework described below. Taking a structured approach to evaluating offers can help you choose a position that truly fits your goals.
Define your goals first
Before evaluating different offers, take some time to think about what you actually want from a PhD. Do not feel stressed if you are still not sure which specific field you want to become an expert in. Many students face this dilemma. Still, you may have a general preference for specific areas based on past courses, talks you attended or research papers you have read. Moreover, your goals may have little to do with the research topic itself. Perhaps you want to move to a particular country, gain experience with tools that are valued in industry, or simply explore whether research is the right career for you. All are legitimate goals, but identifying them in advance will help you make a better-informed decision.
My decision-making framework
I scored each position from 1-10 on every criterion and assigned each criterion a weight based on its importance to me. Not every criterion should carry the same weight. For one student, location may be a deciding factor because of family commitments. For another, research freedom or industry collaborations may matter much more. The weighting step forces you to think explicitly about your priorities instead of treating every factor as equally important. I then calculated a weighted average to compare the offers.
Example:
| Parameter | Weight | Option A | Option B |
|---|---|---|---|
| Research freedom | 4 | 10 | 3 |
| Supervisor responsiveness | 5 | 7 | 9 |
| Group atmosphere | 2 | 8 | 5 |
| Weighted average | 8.27 | 6.09 |
Why this framework helped me
Beyond helping me compare offers, the framework had two additional benefits.
Minimizing uncertainty
By explicitly listing all the factors I cared about, I was able to identify areas in which I had information gaps. Then, I could use different approaches to gain further information, thus increasing my confidence in my decision.
Minimizing regret
During difficult periods of my PhD, I reminded myself that I had made the best decision possible with the information available at the time. That didn’t make the challenges disappear, but it did prevent me from constantly wondering whether I had chosen the “wrong” program.
Note that you don’t know what you don’t know. It’s possible that some aspects of the position would significantly change your experience or your future prospects, but you are currently not aware of them. That’s okay, and you can consider this as another facet of the learning process from a PhD - you learn more about yourself, what works for you, what motivates you, and what is important to you. My hope is that this list helps you discover considerations you may not have thought about before.
How to collect information
To evaluate each position, I recommend combining several information sources:
- Conversations with the PI
- Conversations with current students
- Conversations with former students
- Attending a group meeting
- Reading the PI’s publications
- Exploring the group website
- Reviewing department requirements
- Exploring university resources
I recommend starting with online resources that do not require other people. Then, gather your remaining gaps and focus on those in your conversations. Come prepared, as the PI is usually busy and is less likely to be available for multiple meetings for you to ask questions. That being said, you can always send additional questions via email.
Regarding current and former students, you can ask the PI to connect you, but can also approach them yourself. You can often find former students on the PI’s website and reach out to them directly. The perspective of former students could be particularly valuable. These are people that already completed the entire process. In addition, current students are often more hesitant to criticize their PI, while former students are usually more candid as they have less incentive to present the group in a positive light. They may also be more willing to discuss aspects of the group that didn’t work well for them. One question I would always ask is whether there were students who left the PhD without graduating, and if so, what happened.
Lastly, when going through the publications, make sure to focus more on recent outputs. Pay attention not only to the research itself, but also to the author list, to get insights about collaborations, and the venue in which the paper was published, to identify the research communities the PI is part of.
Evaluation criteria
To keep the evaluation manageable, I grouped the criteria into six broad categories:
- Project
- Supervisor
- Group
- University
- Employment
- Location
In the following resources, I explain why each parameter matters, and also how you can gain information about it. For example, when considering the project, you may give weight not only to your own interest in it, but also the principal investigator (PI)’s level of enthusiasm for the project, as it affects the amount of attention, involvement, and feedback the project is likely to receive. Under the university category, you can also look at other research groups within the department. While not directly related to the position, it could provide a safety net if you ever need to switch to a different supervisor, if, for instance, your supervisor decides to leave academia.
Full criteria list and template
Rather than making this post thousands of words long, I’ve documented the full list of evaluation criteria in a separate resource page. For each criterion, I explain why it matters, how you can evaluate it, and where to find the relevant information.
The full list contains more criteria than you will likely need. Do not treat it as a checklist where every item must be evaluated. Instead, use it as a source of ideas and select the criteria that matter most for your own decision.
PhD Position Evaluation Criteria
Want to compare multiple PhD offers? You can download the comparison template I used and adapt it to your own priorities.
PhDMentor - PhD Position Comparison Template
The key takeaway
There is no universally “best” PhD position. The best choice depends on your goals, working style, and priorities. Two students can evaluate the same offer and reasonably reach different conclusions. What matters is making the decision deliberately, using the best information available to you.