Here are some of the best questions for a high school freshman student survey about sense of belonging, plus tips on how to create them. With Specific, you can build this entire survey in seconds—just generate and customize your questions with AI.
What are the best open-ended questions for a high school freshman student survey about sense of belonging?
Open-ended questions spark richer, more personal responses from students. They’re ideal when you want genuine stories, context, or unexpected insights—not just a quick checkbox. Especially when exploring sensitive topics like sense of belonging, they let respondents speak in their own words. These questions work best early in the school year, during transitions, or when you’re trying to fully understand student experience.
Here are 10 strong open-ended questions to consider:
Can you describe a time when you felt like you truly belonged at our school?
What has helped you feel connected to other students since starting high school?
Are there moments when you have felt left out or excluded? What do you think contributed to that?
How do your teachers and staff help or hinder your sense of belonging?
What groups, clubs, or activities have made you feel welcome?
If you could change one thing at school to help students feel more included, what would it be?
How does your background (culture, identity, interests) influence your experience of belonging at school?
Who do you go to when you want support or to connect with others at school?
What helps you feel safe and valued here?
How do you think sense of belonging impacts your motivation and participation at school?
We know from research that only 51% of U.S. high school students actually feel this sense of belonging at school—a statistic that shows just how important the right questions are for surfacing meaningful stories and actionable improvements. [1]
What are the best single-select multiple-choice questions for a high school freshman student survey about sense of belonging?
Single-select multiple-choice questions are perfect for situations where you need to quantify responses or spot trends quickly. They’re also handy for nudging a student into the conversation when open-ended questions might feel daunting. Sometimes, picking from a few short options is all it takes to get the ball rolling before diving deeper with follow-ups.
Question: How strongly do you feel you belong at this school?
Very strongly
Somewhat strongly
Not very strongly
Not at all
Question: Where do you feel most included at school?
In class
At lunch
During clubs/activities
With friends
Other
Question: How often do you participate in school events or activities?
Frequently
Sometimes
Rarely
Never
When to follow up with "why?" Always consider a follow-up when a response is ambiguous or when you want to understand motivation behind a choice. For instance, if a student says they "rarely" participate in activities, a "why?" follow-up might uncover specific barriers—like a lack of invitations, schedule conflicts, or feeling unwelcome—that you’d otherwise miss.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Adding "Other" lets you capture responses that don’t fit the pre-set options. It opens the door to insights you might not have anticipated, and by following up, you can dig into exactly what’s on their mind. This is where unique experiences and ideas often surface.
It’s worth noting that some groups—LGBTQ+ students, students with disabilities, and students of color—are less likely to feel connected, yet universal questions and diverse options ensure nobody is left invisible. [4]
Should you use an NPS-style question for a high school freshman student sense of belonging survey?
Absolutely. While Net Promoter Score (NPS) is popular in business, it’s powerful in education, too. In this context, you’re asking students: "How likely are you to recommend this school to a friend?" It's a simple, trusted way to benchmark overall belonging and satisfaction, and works especially well during transition years. When high school freshmen feel like they belong, they're more likely to participate, recommend, and graduate from their school. [9]
Try a ready-made NPS survey for high school freshmen about sense of belonging to see how this fits into a full survey flow.
The power of follow-up questions
Smart follow-up questions are where the magic happens. Instead of treating every response as final, Specific’s automated follow-ups leverage AI to probe, clarify, and dig for context in real time. It’s like having a skilled interviewer chat with every student—getting richer, more useful answers with less effort.
High school freshman student: "I don’t feel included at lunch."
AI follow-up: "Can you tell me more about what might help you feel more included during lunch?"
Compared to traditional surveys (where unclear responses would get lost unless someone emailed for clarification), AI-driven follow-ups instantly deepen the data and save enormous amounts of time for schools or research teams.
How many followups to ask? Usually, 2–3 follow-ups is the sweet spot for meaningful detail. With Specific, you can set rules so the AI will stop asking for more info once you have what you need or allow the student to skip ahead—keeping the whole process respectful and comfortable.
This makes it a conversational survey: Instead of a static form, follow-ups turn the survey into a real conversation. Students feel listened to, and you gather richer, more honest insights. That’s how conversational surveys stand out.
AI survey response analysis: Even with all this unstructured text, analyzing responses with AI is easy. Try our AI-powered response analysis tool to tag trends, summarize responses, and uncover actionable signals—no matter how long or in-depth your survey gets.
Automated follow-ups are a gamechanger—if you haven’t tried them, generate a survey and watch the experience for yourself.
How to write a prompt for ChatGPT or an AI survey generator
Coming up with strong questions doesn’t have to be a manual task. The right prompt lets you unlock great ideas from AI—instantly. Start simple, then give more context for the best results.
To brainstorm questions quickly, send this prompt:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for high school freshman student survey about sense of belonging.
But to get even stronger results, add more context about your school, student backgrounds, or what you want to achieve:
We are a public high school in a diverse urban area. Our goal is to understand how freshman students from different backgrounds experience belonging, both in and outside the classroom. Suggest 10 open-ended questions for our sense of belonging survey that will help us act on the results.
Next, ask the AI to categorize the questions for easier organization:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Finally, if you spot a category that’s especially relevant, go deeper:
Generate 10 questions for the category “belonging during extracurricular activities”.
This approach helps the AI focus, gets you more targeted questions, and saves tons of brainstorming time.
What is a conversational survey?
A conversational survey is an interactive, chat-like survey experience where the AI asks questions and responds to answers in real time—probing, clarifying, or celebrating the response just as a human interviewer would. The result is a friendlier, less intimidating environment for students, with feedback that feels natural instead of forced.
Compared to traditional surveys (think static web forms), AI-generated conversational surveys deliver:
Deeper insight (thanks to on-the-spot probing and clarification)
Higher engagement (the “chat” format is familiar and less formal for students)
Greater flexibility (easy editing with tools like our AI survey editor)
Manual Survey Creation | AI-Generated Conversational Surveys |
---|---|
Brainstorm and write all questions by hand | Use AI to generate strong questions instantly from a prompt |
Responses may be shallow; follow-ups require extra time | AI probes deeper with follow-ups, yielding richer data |
Manual analysis—takes hours to spot trends | Fast, AI-powered analysis and summaries |
Feels like a form | Feels like a conversation |
Why use AI for high school freshman student surveys? It saves time, ensures every respondent gets a tailored experience, eliminates manual follow-ups, and delivers richer, more diverse feedback. With Specific, you get the best-in-class conversational survey UX—students actually engage, and feedback is honest and actionable. If you want to learn more, see our step-by-step guide: how to create a survey for high school freshmen about sense of belonging.
Try an AI survey example or explore our AI survey generator to see how easy it is to design and launch a meaningful survey with just a prompt.
See this sense of belonging survey example now
Experience how conversational surveys unlock honest, actionable feedback from every high school freshman—get started in seconds and surface insights you’d never uncover with old-school forms.