Here are some of the best questions for a college undergraduate student survey about housing and residence life, along with tips on how to create them. If you want to generate a tailored conversational survey in seconds, you can build one with Specific’s AI survey generator.
The best open-ended questions for college undergraduate student housing and residence life surveys
Open-ended questions give students space to express what really matters to them—insights you’d never capture with just a few checkboxes. They’re ideal when you want authentic stories, full context, or to surface unexpected pain points. But open-ended questions work best at the beginning of a conversation or when you want to dive deep after a multiple-choice answer.
Here are the 10 best open-ended questions for this audience:
Can you describe your overall experience living in campus housing so far?
What aspects of your residence community have helped you feel a sense of belonging?
Have you experienced any challenges with your housing; if so, what were they and how did you address them?
In your opinion, how does your current living environment impact your academic performance?
What changes or improvements would you suggest for campus housing facilities or policies?
How accessible and helpful have residence life staff or support services been for you?
How have rising housing costs affected you or your peers? Please explain.
What resources or programs could better support your mental health and well-being in campus housing?
How do you balance privacy and social interaction in your living space?
What advice would you offer to incoming students about choosing or living in campus housing?
With close to half of all students at four-year institutions experiencing housing insecurity, probing into personal experiences with focused, open prompts helps reveal not just the facts, but the 'why' and 'how.' [1]
The best single-select multiple-choice questions for housing and residence surveys
Single-select multiple-choice questions let you quantify preferences, compare answers at scale, and make it easy for students to respond quickly. They work especially well when kickstarting a conversation—sometimes picking from a few concise options lowers the barrier to start, and then well-placed follow-up questions unlock the detail.
Question: What type of campus housing do you currently live in?
Traditional dormitory
Suite-style
Apartment-style
Off-campus
Other
Question: What is your top priority when selecting campus housing?
Affordability
Privacy (single room or private bath)
Proximity to classes/resources
Community/social atmosphere
Other
Question: How satisfied are you with the mental health support provided in your residence?
Very satisfied
Somewhat satisfied
Somewhat dissatisfied
Very dissatisfied
I haven’t used these services
When to follow up with “why?” Follow up immediately when a student’s choice hints at dissatisfaction or a strong opinion. For example, if someone chooses “Suite-style” housing as their favorite, ask what they value about that, or if they’re dissatisfied with mental health supports, ask what’s missing. That “why?” bridges the gap from checkbox to true insight—often revealing, for example, that nearly 60% of students request more mental health support in housing facilities. [2]
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always include an “Other” option when the list might not be exhaustive. If a student picks “Other,” follow up by asking them to specify—this is often where surprising pain points and new ideas pop up.
NPS for student housing: When and why to use it
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) question—“On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend living in our campus housing to a friend?”—is a gold standard for quickly understanding overall sentiment. It’s especially useful here, because each point on the scale reflects the likelihood that housing fosters a positive student experience, which impacts retention. In fact, students who live on campus are 2 percentage points more likely to persist into the second year compared to their off-campus peers. [3] By tracking how many “promoters” and “detractors” you have, and following up to ask why, you can prioritize improvement efforts that directly affect satisfaction and graduation rates. You can instantly generate an NPS survey for student housing using Specific.
The power of follow-up questions
Automated follow-up questions are the gamechanger that separates an average survey from an insightful, conversational one. Specific’s automated AI follow-ups feature enables the AI to probe deeper, clarify ambiguity, and dig for richer stories—just like a skilled interviewer would. This ensures you don’t just get surface-level checkboxes, but understand the context behind each answer.
College undergraduate student: “I wish there were better social spaces.”
AI follow-up: “What type of social spaces do you feel are missing, and how would those improve your experience?”
Without that second question, you’d miss whether they want shared lounges, quiet study areas, or outdoor spaces.
How many followups to ask? Generally, 2–3 follow-up questions are effective. You want to go deep enough to get specifics, but not overwhelm the respondent. Specific’s AI lets you set a limit and automatically skips to the next question once you’ve got your answer—keeping things conversational and efficient.
This makes it a conversational survey: the respondent feels heard and drawn in, not like they’re completing a tedious form. It’s a back-and-forth, not a checkbox chore.
Easy AI analysis, even with lots of unstructured text: AI survey response analysis tools, like Specific’s AI analysis, allow you to chat directly with the data, summarizing themes and pulling out actionable insights from open-ended text—without hours of manual coding. For more tips, see how to analyze housing and residence life survey responses.
Automated AI follow-ups are a relatively new concept—give it a try and experience the clarity of responses you’ll unlock by letting an expert-like AI keep the conversation going.
Prompts for using ChatGPT or other AI to generate student housing survey questions
If you want to craft your own survey questions with ChatGPT or similar AI tools, start by prompting for broad, open-ended questions, then iterate for more depth. Here’s how:
Ask for an initial set:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for College Undergraduate Student survey about Housing And Residence Life.
You’ll get better results if you give the AI more specific context about the setting, your audience, and goals. For example:
I am designing a survey for undergraduate students to understand their experiences with on-campus and off-campus housing, focusing on well-being, sense of belonging, costs, and academic impact. Suggest 10 open-ended questions.
Let the AI or ChatGPT help you organize ideas:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Pick categories you care about most (e.g., privacy, mental health, affordability), then ask for follow-ups:
Generate 10 questions for the categories “mental health support and sense of community.”
This workflow supercharges your question set, and it’s exactly the kind of conversational logic baked into AI survey generators like Specific.
What is a conversational survey?
A conversational survey is a modern approach where the survey feels like chatting with a sharp interviewer, not filling out a long boring form. The system asks you a question (sometimes open-ended, sometimes a choice), then the AI listens, follows up for detail, and pivots the conversation as needed. The result is richer, more natural data that’s easy to act on.
Compared to manual surveys, AI survey generation is miles faster—and prevents survey fatigue for both respondents and creators. Instead of spending hours designing every question, then following up awkwardly by email, Specific’s AI survey builder can take your plain-English prompt and create a tailored, expert-level survey in moments. Then, its AI editor lets you tweak everything with natural chat commands, saving even more time. See more in our guide on how to create a college housing survey.
Manual Surveys | AI-Generated Surveys |
|---|---|
Hours or days to design | Survey ready in minutes |
One-way, rigid forms | Conversational, feels like chat |
Limited follow-ups—risk missing key details | AI probes naturally for clarity and depth |
Manual analysis of open text | AI analysis and instant summaries |
Survey fatigue for students | Higher engagement & completion |
Why use AI for college undergraduate student surveys? With high rates of housing insecurity and academic performance tightly linked to living arrangements, it’s crucial to get clear, thorough feedback. AI survey examples—especially conversational ones—deliver not just more responses, but better quality data: deeper insights into the “why” behind choices, as well as actionable ideas to improve student life. Specific is a leader in this space, offering best-in-class experiences that make it easy for you and your respondents to share and understand feedback in a smooth, chat-like flow.
See this housing and residence life survey example now
Try a conversational housing survey powered by AI and get richer, more actionable student insights in minutes. Uncover what actually matters to your campus community and make more confident decisions—see the difference for yourself.