Best questions for college doctoral student survey about international student experience

Here are some of the best questions for a college doctoral student survey about international student experience, plus tips on getting more insightful answers. You can easily build a custom conversational survey with Specific—just generate one in seconds with our AI-powered tools.

Best open-ended questions for a doctoral student survey on international student experience

Open-ended questions tap into personal stories, reveal hidden issues, and empower respondents to share what matters most to them. We use these when we want depth—not just checkboxes. Especially for understanding how international college doctoral students navigate academic and cultural transitions, open-ended questions let unique voices be heard.

Why does this matter? Because research found that nearly 17.4% of English-speaking international doctoral students were dissatisfied with academic support, compared to 7.4% of Russian-speaking peers—insights surfaced only by digging deeper into personal contexts. [1]

Here are the 10 best open-ended questions to ask:

1. What has been the most challenging aspect of adapting to academic life as an international student in your doctoral program?

2. Can you describe a time when cultural differences significantly affected your research or academic interactions?

3. What support systems or resources have helped you succeed the most during your program?

4. How would you rate your ability to connect with peers and faculty, and what factors influenced that experience?

5. What do you wish your institution did differently to help international doctoral students feel more included?

6. Describe any language-related challenges you have faced in your coursework, research, or networking.

7. What advice would you give to future international doctoral students enrolling in your program?

8. How has living and studying in a new country influenced your career aspirations?

9. What unexpected positives have you discovered while studying abroad at the doctoral level?

10. Were there moments when you considered leaving your program? What prompted those feelings, and what helped you stay?

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for this survey

Single-select multiple-choice questions work when you need quick, quantifiable insights or want to ease respondents into the survey. They're also great for starting a conversation—sometimes it’s simpler to select from a few options before diving into deeper open-ended follow-ups. This combo helps get things moving and prepares the ground for richer feedback with AI follow-up questions.

Question: Which of the following has been your biggest academic challenge as an international doctoral student?

• Language barriers

• Lack of faculty support

• Cultural differences in academic norms

• Adapting to new grading/assessment methods

• Other

Question: How would you describe your overall satisfaction with the university’s support for international doctoral students?

• Very satisfied

• Satisfied

• Neutral

• Dissatisfied

• Very dissatisfied

Question: Since arriving, how has your interest in pursuing an academic career changed?

• It has increased

• It has stayed the same

• It has decreased

• I never intended to pursue an academic career

When to follow up with "why?" Sometimes, responses prove surprising or vague, so always consider a follow-up. For example, if a student chooses "It has decreased" when asked about academic career interest, ask, "Why has your interest declined?" This helps uncover root causes or context, especially since research shows that cultural conflicts increase the risk of losing interest in faculty roles. [2]

When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always include it when the pre-set options might not fully capture your respondents’ experience or you expect diversity in responses. The magic happens in the follow-up: when someone picks "Other," an immediate prompt—"Can you share what challenge you faced?"—often leads to unexpected yet valuable discoveries.

NPS survey question for doctoral student experience: does it make sense?

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) question is a widely-used measure of satisfaction and advocacy: “How likely are you to recommend this program to other international doctoral students?” Measured on a scale from 0 to 10, it pinpoints overall sentiment and lays groundwork for follow-up: "What is the main reason for your score?" or "What would improve your experience?"

NPS questions are worth including for this audience—they offer a fast, standardized way to track shifts in satisfaction and benchmark against other programs. You can create an NPS survey tailored for college doctoral students on international student experience in one click with our platform.

The power of follow-up questions

Follow-up questions are where the real gold lies in conversational surveys for doctoral students about international student experience. Instead of stopping at surface-level answers, AI can dig deeper, parse nuances, and clarify details in real time. This is the core of what makes a conversational survey—it turns one-way forms into engaging back-and-forth interviews.

Specific's AI uses smart, context-aware follow-ups to extract richer insights. This means fewer email chains and less manual prodding for clarification. With instant, on-topic probing, you capture full context while it's fresh. What does that look like when you skip follow-ups?

• Student: "I sometimes feel excluded."

• AI follow-up: "Can you share a specific example of when you felt excluded? Was it in class, social settings, or somewhere else?"

Without the follow-up, you’re left guessing what “excluded” really means for that respondent.

How many followups to ask? We’ve found that 2-3 targeted follow-ups per main question usually deliver plenty of detail, but it’s key to let the respondent skip ahead anytime. With Specific, you can control the depth, saving time and respecting everyone’s energy.

This makes it a conversational survey—not just another rigid questionnaire. It feels like a natural chat, which leads to more thoughtful, open, and complete answers.

AI-powered survey response analysis: Even with lots of unstructured text, analyzing responses is easy if you use the right AI tools. We recommend reading up on how to analyze survey responses for doctoral students with Specific’s AI analysis features.

These automated, context-based follow-ups are new to many, but the results speak for themselves. With AI, survey completion rates reach 70-80%, compared to only 45-50% for traditional surveys. [4] Try generating a survey to see how follow-ups improve response quality firsthand.

How to prompt ChatGPT for better survey questions

AI like ChatGPT can help you brainstorm survey questions quickly, but prompts matter. Start simple, then add context for nuanced results:

Basic prompt for brainstorming:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for college doctoral student survey about international student experience.

If you give the AI more situational context—like your institution type, student demographics, or the kind of insights you want—the quality of questions will improve. For example:

I want to gather feedback from international doctoral students in STEM programs at a large public university. Our goal is to identify barriers to integration and success for these students. Suggest 10 open-ended questions that address both academic and social experiences.

Next, use AI to sort and structure your list:

Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.

Finally, pick the categories most relevant to your research and go deeper:

Generate 10 questions for categories: Academic Integration, Social Support, Institutional Services.

What is a conversational survey?

A conversational survey feels like a one-on-one interview, not a cold Google Form. With AI survey generators, you get dynamic conversations: the survey adapts to answers, clarifies confusion, and quickly pivots based on the respondent's context. Traditional/manual survey forms are rigid, often leading to skipped answers or lack of nuance.

Why use AI for college doctoral student surveys? With nearly 76% of marketers and 43% of American professionals already using AI for work, conversational surveys are becoming the new standard. [3][5] AI-generated surveys help you move faster and collect richer feedback without needing to be a survey pro yourself.

If you want a deep dive on setup, see our guide on creating an AI-powered college doctoral student survey about international experience.

Specific offers the smoothest, most engaging way to run conversational surveys, making the feedback process feel natural (for both you and your respondents). Our AI survey editor even lets you update questions by simply chatting, no drag-and-drop needed—learn more in our AI survey editor overview.

See this international student experience survey example now

Get instant inspiration and see how a conversational survey for international doctoral student experience actually works. Don’t miss the unique insights you can uncover—start engaging your audience faster than ever.