Here are some of the best questions for a freshmen student survey about life expectations, along with tips to help you craft them. We know how vital strong questions are—it’s why Specific lets you build an engaging, AI-driven survey from scratch in seconds.

Best open-ended questions for a freshmen student survey about life expectations

Open-ended questions are perfect for uncovering deep, honest insights. They let freshmen students share their hopes, worries, and big-picture outlooks in their own words, capturing the nuances that checkboxes can’t. While these types of questions take more effort to answer—and sometimes see slightly higher nonresponse rates (median 13%) compared to closed-ended ones [2]—the tradeoff is richer qualitative data. They’re especially effective at the start of a semester or when you’re trying to map out student sentiment in detail.

1. What are your biggest hopes or dreams for your time in college?

2. Which personal goals do you most want to accomplish during your freshman year?

3. What are your main concerns as you start this new phase of your life?

4. How do you imagine your life will be different a year from now?

5. What skills do you hope to develop during your time as a freshman?

6. Describe the experiences you’re most looking forward to in college.

7. What motivates you the most as you start your academic journey?

8. How do you expect your social life to change while at university?

9. What’s one thing that would make your freshman year exceptional?

10. Is there anything you wish your future self could tell you about the path ahead?

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for a freshmen student survey about life expectations

Single-select multiple-choice questions shine when you want to quickly identify trends and quantify responses, or gently ease respondents into the survey conversation. They’re less mentally demanding, making it more likely freshmen will answer—boosting your completion rate (with typical web-based surveys for college students averaging between 22% and 40% response rates) [1]. These questions are a solid opener or a way to break up longer surveys before digging deeper with open-ended or follow-up queries.

Question: How confident do you feel about meeting your academic goals this year?

• Very confident

• Somewhat confident

• Neutral

• Somewhat uncertain

• Very uncertain

Question: Which area do you feel will impact your life expectations the most as a freshman?

• Academic success

• Social connections

• Mental health

• Financial stability

• Other

Question: How often do you think about your long-term goals as a freshman?

• Daily

• Weekly

• Monthly

• Rarely

• Never

When to follow up with "why?" Once a respondent selects an option, a simple “Why?” follow-up unlocks specifics you wouldn’t get otherwise. For instance, if they select “Somewhat uncertain” about meeting academic goals, asking “What makes you feel uncertain?” can reveal if it’s workload, support, or something else entirely—and that’s exactly where the most meaningful interventions start.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? Whenever categories might not capture everyone’s experience, it’s smart to add “Other.” If a freshman picks “Other” for what will impact their life expectations, an automated follow-up (“Can you describe what you had in mind?”) can uncover emerging trends or hidden needs you never thought to ask about.

Including an NPS question for freshmen on life expectations

Net Promoter Score (NPS) isn’t just for products. It’s a fast, proven way to gauge experience, satisfaction, and overall expectations—especially when newcomers are adjusting to university life. You simply ask: “On a scale from 0-10, how likely are you to recommend your freshman experience here to a friend?” It gives you a baseline, tracks overall sentiment change, and, paired with follow-ups, highlights what’s working (and what isn’t). Try generating an NPS survey for freshmen students about life expectations in seconds.

The power of follow-up questions

If you’ve ever scratched your head at a vague survey reply, you already know the value of great follow-up questions. Specific’s smart AI follow-ups (see how automated follow-ups work) engage each respondent in a real conversation—filling in gaps, clarifying, and surfacing details you might otherwise miss. In a field study, AI-driven conversational surveys delivered more specific, relevant, and informative answers—enabling deeper insight and less confusion [3].

• Freshmen student: “I want to make new friends.”

• AI follow-up: “What makes building new friendships important to you as you start your freshman year?”

Without that follow-up, we’d lose perspective—maybe social life matters most for mental health, or maybe it’s about networking for the future.

How many follow-ups to ask? Typically, two or three follow-ups are enough to get to the “why” and “how” of a response. If the answer’s crystal clear, Specific automatically moves on—the AI is configurable and respects the flow you want.

This makes it a conversational survey—the experience naturally feels like chat, not a stiff form, so participation stays high and you get higher-quality feedback.

AI survey response analysis—analyzing long-form text isn’t a headache anymore. Specific makes it simple to analyze all open-ended replies with AI, surfacing themes and organizing feedback even from sprawling, unstructured answers.

Give it a try: go ahead and generate your own conversational survey—see how much clarity AI-powered follow-ups add.

How to prompt ChatGPT or GPTs for great freshmen life expectations questions

ChatGPT (or any GPT-based tool) becomes much more powerful when you steer it with contextual info and clear asks. Begin simple, then iterate for deeper relevance. Try these prompts:

Start broad, then narrow:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for freshmen student survey about life expectations.

More context = better output. For example, add your goals:

I work in student affairs. I'm building a conversational survey for freshmen students to understand their life expectations, anxieties, and what support they want most. Suggest 10 open-ended questions tailored to those goals.

Organize responses for clarity:

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

Drill into specifics once you like certain themes:

Generate 10 questions for categories like “motivation” and “academic expectations”.

What is a conversational survey?

A conversational survey is a feedback experience that feels like chatting with a knowledgeable peer, not filling out a sterile form. AI survey generators, like Specific, transform question-and-answer into actual dialogue: they greet respondents, adapt questions, probe for details, and keep the interaction alive with empathy. For freshmen, that lowers barriers—they’re more comfortable, more engaged, and less likely to skip.

Why use AI for freshmen student surveys? AI-driven surveys personalize follow-ups, improve response quality, and keep drop-off rates low. They’re especially helpful in a campus environment where attention spans are short and honest feedback is gold. If you want your survey to work hard for you, try an AI survey example with real-time feedback loops. AI generates higher quality, less “box-checker” answers and does the heavy lifting in response analysis—so you focus on action, not data wrangling.

Specific stands out here—the conversational survey format, built-in AI survey builder, and friendly respondent experience make both survey creation and data collection seamless for students and staff. If you want a step-by-step guide, see how to create a freshmen student survey about life expectations.

See this Life Expectations survey example now

Experience richer insights with AI-powered, conversational surveys—generate your freshmen student life expectations survey in seconds and level up the quality of your feedback instantly.