Here are some of the best questions for a high school junior student survey about summer program interest, along with tips on designing them for deeper feedback. You can build a complete survey like this in seconds using Specific.
Best open-ended questions for high school junior student survey about summer program interest
Open-ended questions are powerful in student surveys because they invite authentic responses and reveal what truly motivates each individual—far beyond simple yes/no answers. These questions let high school juniors express themselves in their own words, surfacing new ideas and emotional context that strict multiple choice can’t capture. This helps us discover not just preferences, but also the “why” behind them, capturing richer, more nuanced feedback. In fact, surveys with open-ended questions often uncover unexpected trends and student needs that would otherwise go unnoticed. Open-ended questions are essential when we want deep insight, not just superficial data. Research shows these questions help surface ideas and patterns you might never predict. [1]
What interests or passions would you like to explore this summer?
Can you describe your ideal summer program and what makes it appealing to you?
What skills or experiences are you hoping to gain from a summer program?
Tell us about any challenges you face when looking for summer programs.
Are there any topics, subjects, or activities you wish were offered in summer programs?
What have you enjoyed most about past summer programs or activities?
How do you think a summer program could help with your future goals?
What factors are most important when deciding whether to join a summer program?
Is there anything that would stop you from joining a summer program this year?
If you could design your perfect summer program from scratch, what would it look like?
Using open questions like these not only empowers students’ creativity and self-expression, but also helps us tap into their real motivations and concerns around summer opportunities. This is crucial for making programs both attractive and relevant. [2][3]
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for high school junior student survey about summer program interest
Sometimes we need to quantify preferences or quickly compare responses across many students. That’s where single-select multiple-choice questions shine: they make it easier to structure specific insights, spot trends, and kick off deeper conversations. We often start with these for quick wins, then dig deeper with follow-ups as needed. These questions provide a balance—students don’t have to overthink their initial answer, and we can pinpoint patterns in the group. For high school juniors, the best multiple-choice questions are direct and focused, while leaving space for unexpected answers.
Question: What type of summer programs are you most interested in?
Academic enrichment
Sports or fitness
Arts or creative activities
Volunteer or community service
Other
Question: What is your top priority when choosing a summer program?
Learning new skills
Making friends
Exploring new interests
Preparing for college/career
Question: How far are you willing to travel for a summer program?
Within my city
Nearby towns only
Anywhere in the state
Anywhere in the country
When to follow up with "why?" It’s important to ask a follow-up “why?” when the initial answer could mean many things, or when you want to get beyond surface details. For example, if a student selects “Academic enrichment” as their interest, a follow-up like “Why is academic enrichment important to you this summer?” uncovers motivations, goals, or barriers. This moves you from raw data to genuine understanding.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Adding “Other” is especially valuable when you know not all possible options are listed or when you want to encourage students to introduce ideas you hadn’t considered. When students choose "Other" and elaborate, you often discover new program interests or hidden needs. Follow-up questions here can unlock surprising themes that may shape future summer offerings.
Using NPS question with high school juniors about summer program interest
NPS stands for Net Promoter Score—a trusted method in both business and education spheres to quickly gauge satisfaction, loyalty, or intent. It works beautifully for high school juniors: ask, “How likely are you to recommend this summer program to a friend?” on a 0-10 scale, and you instantly spot your biggest fans, those on the fence, and students who might have reservations. This metric is easy to track over time and can spotlight where summer offerings are really resonating, or where they’re missing the mark. You can easily generate a ready-to-use NPS survey for this audience with our AI-powered builder.
The power of follow-up questions
Follow-up questions are, hands down, the secret to getting meaningful insights from student surveys. Specific’s AI follow-up feature lets us drill in, just like an expert interviewer: the AI listens to a student’s initial response, thinks about what’s missing or unclear, and probes for extra detail. This means you don’t have to chase people via email or schedule extra interviews—richer context comes automatically, right in the conversation.
High school junior: “I’m interested in summer programs because they sound fun.”
AI follow-up: “What do you find fun about summer programs? Is it the activities, the chance to meet new people, or something else?”
How many followups to ask? Generally, 2–3 good follow-ups are enough to unlock depth without causing survey fatigue. With Specific, you can even set a rule to stop further probing when you have the information you need, so the experience remains smooth and engaging.
This makes it a conversational survey: Thanks to dynamic follow-ups, your survey feels more like a real conversation—never like a cold web form. Respondents feel heard, and you get context that static surveys always miss.
AI analysis, open-ended data, survey results: With so many open-text and follow-up answers, manual analysis would be a nightmare. Instead, Specific uses AI survey response analysis to pull out themes, summarize takeaways, and let you “chat” with your data about what matters most.
Automated probing is a new frontier in student surveys—try generating a survey like this to experience just how seamlessly it works.
Prompting ChatGPT to create survey questions for high school juniors
If you want to brainstorm even more questions, large language models (like GPT-4 or ChatGPT) can be super helpful—especially if you start with clear, targeted prompts. Here’s how we’d approach it:
First, get a starter set of open-ended questions:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for High School Junior Student survey about Summer Program Interest.
But you’ll always get better results if you give more context—who you are, what the school’s like, key challenges, your goals, and what you want to discover. Here’s a richer version:
I’m a high school guidance counselor creating a survey to understand the summer program interests and needs of our junior students. Please generate 10 open-ended questions that will help us identify their biggest motivations, challenges, and what types of new or existing summer programs would excite them most.
Once you have a set of questions, ask AI to organize them so you can spot patterns and dive deeper.
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Finally, if there’s a category or theme you really want to explore—like “Barriers to Participation” or “Career Goals”—ask for targeted questions on that front:
Generate 10 questions for categories Career Goals and Barriers to Participation.
What is a conversational survey? Manual vs. AI-generated questions
Unlike old-school surveys, a conversational survey feels like a real chat. It adapts to the respondent, asks clarifying follow-ups on the fly, and uses natural language that puts students at ease. AI-powered survey builders do this instantly. You describe your goals and audience, and the AI suggestions are grounded in expert research and tailored to your context. Suddenly, building out a truly thoughtful, bias-free survey is actually fun—not a chore.
Manual Survey Creation | AI Survey Creation (with Specific) |
|---|---|
Draft questions by hand—takes hours | Type a prompt—questions are generated in seconds |
Static, non-adaptive | Conversational follow-ups adapt in real time |
Manual analysis of responses | AI summaries, theme extraction, chat with responses |
Little personalization | Questions can be tailored for each respondent and context |
Why use AI for high school junior student surveys? Because it works: it’s faster to build, more engaging for students, and much deeper in the insights it uncovers—especially when you want genuine context about summer program interest. AI survey examples show how far beyond rigid forms we can go today. Best of all, creating a conversational survey with Specific ensures respondents actually enjoy providing feedback, which means higher completion rates and better data.
For this audience and topic, Specific delivers the most intuitive, engaging user experience—students find the conversation natural, and you collect actionable feedback.
See this summer program interest survey example now
Ready for feedback you can actually use? See what a conversational survey for high school juniors looks like and create your own—Specific delivers richer insights and a far more engaging experience, fast.