Here are some of the best questions for a college graduate student survey about mental health and well-being, along with tips on how to create them. If you want to build or generate a truly engaging AI survey in seconds, Specific lets you create one without any hassle.
Best open-ended questions for a college graduate student mental health survey
Open-ended questions help uncover the real experiences and struggles behind the numbers. They work best when we want qualitative insights—letting college graduate students share, in their own words, how mental health and well-being affect them day to day. This is critical, especially considering that graduate students are more than six times as likely to experience depression and anxiety compared to the general population [1]. Here are the ten strongest open-ended questions to ask:
How would you describe your current mental health and emotional state since starting your graduate studies?
What challenges related to mental health or well-being have you faced during your graduate program?
Can you tell us about a support system or resource that has helped you the most during stressful periods?
If you've struggled with anxiety or depression, what do you feel were the main contributing factors?
In what ways have academic pressures affected your overall well-being?
What barriers (if any) have stopped you from seeking help for a mental health concern?
Can you share an example of how your mental health impacted your academic performance or personal relationships?
What could your institution do better to support your mental health and well-being?
How do you typically manage or cope with feelings of overwhelm or stress?
If there was one thing you could change about how mental health is addressed in graduate school, what would it be?
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for this survey
Single-select multiple-choice questions are perfect when we want quantitative data—whether benchmarking trends, segmenting opinions, or simply making it easier for someone to start the conversation. Sometimes, choosing from clear short options is less intimidating for graduate students than crafting a detailed answer straight away. These questions deliver quick, actionable stats while setting up deeper follow-ups for richer feedback. Here are three great examples:
Question: How would you rate your overall level of stress since beginning graduate school?
Minimal
Moderate
High
Extremely high
Question: Have you sought any professional help for mental health concerns during your graduate studies?
Yes
No
Considering it
Question: Which of the following resources have you used to support your mental health?
Counseling services
Peer support groups
Online mental health platforms
Other
When to follow up with "why?" If someone picks "High" stress, a follow-up question like "Why do you feel your stress is high?" can uncover whether it’s academic pressure, personal life, or something else. This context clarifies data and surfaces actionable insights.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Anytime the listed choices may not cover every student’s situation, offer "Other" and use follow-ups to let graduate students specify unique supports or challenges. This catches insights you may not have considered.
NPS question: Does it make sense for a college graduate student mental health survey?
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) has become a trusted benchmark in many sectors—including education—for capturing overall satisfaction and loyalty. In a mental health and well-being survey, we can frame the NPS question like this: "How likely are you to recommend your institution’s mental health resources to other graduate students?" This simple 0-10 scale reveals not only the quality of support, but measures student advocacy and trust in resources. In light of research showing that 64% of grad and professional students report "more than average" or "tremendous" stress levels in the past 12 months [2], understanding whether support options are actually making a positive impact is crucial. You can quickly set up this type of NPS survey with Specific here.
The power of follow-up questions
Well-crafted follow-up questions unlock nuance and depth traditional form-based surveys can’t touch. Automated probing—like what Specific enables with AI follow-up questions—reads in real time, clarifies ambiguity, and encourages honest reflection. Rather than guessing what a graduate student meant, you get precise, actionable details—at scale and instantly. Even brief written answers become insights-rich when you dig with curiosity.
Graduate student: "I struggle with anxiety a lot."
AI follow-up: "Can you tell me about specific situations in your program that trigger your anxiety most?"
Instead of an unclear response, you’re creating a genuine conversation that captures specific triggers, letting you suggest tailored interventions.
How many followups to ask? Two to three follow-ups are usually plenty—you get both detail and depth without overwhelming respondents. You can set up your survey so it moves to the next question when enough information is gathered. Specific makes this easy with a flexible follow-up limiter.
This makes it a conversational survey: Your surveys become interactive dialogues, not just a list of questions—making the experience friendlier and boosting completion rates.
AI survey analysis, text and qualitative data: Even with lots of unstructured answers, analyzing results is simple—just use AI-powered survey analysis for grad student feedback to quickly surface key trends, challenges, and emotional signals hiding in the open text.
These automated follow-ups are a new concept—try generating a survey and experience the difference in both quality and context.
How to prompt ChatGPT for great college graduate student survey questions
You don’t need to be a survey expert to get quality questions from AI. Start with a simple prompt:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for college graduate student survey about mental health and well-being.
This works, but if you give more context—who you are, your goals, and what you’ll do with the data—AI gets even sharper. For example:
I’m designing a mental health survey for final-year graduate students in the sciences. I want to discover their biggest stressors and what support they wish they had received over the past year. Suggest 10 open-ended questions.
Once you have a list of questions, ask:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Then, zero in further on what you’re most interested in. For example:
Generate 10 questions about “Managing academic pressure” and “Seeking support services.”
This process—zooming in by context—means you get highly relevant, actionable questions fast. If you want, you can also try Specific’s AI survey builder for even faster results and fine-tuned outputs.
What is a conversational survey—and why does it matter?
A conversational survey is not just technology, but a whole new way of collecting honest feedback. Instead of static forms, respondents chat with an intelligent AI that asks questions, listens to their answers, and responds immediately with relevant follow-ups. This approach results in richer context, deeper honesty, and fewer abandoned responses.
Comparing manual survey building with AI-powered survey creation highlights why the latter is changing the game:
Manual Survey | AI-Generated Conversational Survey |
|---|---|
Static forms and fixed logic | Dynamic, chat-driven, context-rich interactions |
Hard to probe for clarity | Automatic, intelligent follow-up questions |
Time-consuming to build and analyze | Surveys generated, edited, and analyzed by AI in seconds |
Often boring for respondents | Mobile-first, engaging, completion rates soar |
Why use AI for college graduate student surveys? The mental health of graduate students is multi-faceted and evolves fast. With AI survey examples and real-time conversational surveys, you discover the real “why” and “how”—not just “what.” Specific streamlines survey design, follow-ups, and analysis, turning your feedback loop into a true dialogue.
Explore more tips on how to create a college graduate student mental health survey that truly works.
Specific offers best-in-class experience when it comes to building engaging conversational surveys—helping you create conversations that students actually want to have.
See this mental health and well-being survey example now
Unlock real insights with a conversational college graduate student mental health survey that adapts, probes, and analyzes every response—helping you understand and support your students where it matters most. Start collecting the feedback that helps you take action, today.