Here are some of the best questions for a student survey about advising availability, plus tips on how to build a powerful feedback tool. With Specific, you can generate a survey about advising availability in seconds—just build one instantly using our AI-driven platform.
Best open-ended questions for advising availability surveys
Open-ended questions are the workhorses of student feedback. They invite real opinions, stories, and context—perfect for uncovering what actually works (and what doesn’t) in advising accessibility. Students get to share what’s on their mind, without being boxed in by predefined choices. Use them when you want to hear firsthand experiences or explore nuanced challenges.
How would you describe the ease of scheduling an advising appointment at our institution?
What challenges, if any, have you faced in accessing your academic advisor?
In your experience, what factors make advising feel more available or responsive?
Can you share a recent example where you struggled to get the advising support you needed?
What suggestions do you have to improve advisor availability for students?
How do you typically communicate with your advisor, and how effective has this been?
What resources or alternatives (e.g., peer mentoring, online chat) would help increase your access to advising?
Describe your ideal process for getting timely academic advice.
How do you think advising availability impacts your academic progress?
Is there anything else you wish the advising office understood about student needs?
Effective advising, as Georgia State University showed by quadrupling their advisor staff and using AI tools, played a major role in improving student satisfaction, retention, and closing graduation gaps [1]. Open responses can shine a light on obstacles institutions might otherwise miss.
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for student advising surveys
Single-select multiple-choice questions are perfect when you want quick, quantifiable data. They work well at the start of a survey, making it easy for students to jump in. Some students prefer ticking a box to writing out a long response—it lowers friction, especially for busy or uncertain responders. They also help kickstart conversations, setting the stage for deeper follow-ups.
Here are three practical examples:
Question: How easy is it to book an advising appointment?
Very easy
Somewhat easy
Somewhat difficult
Very difficult
Question: When are you most likely to need access to advising?
During business hours (9am-5pm)
Evenings
Weekends
Other
Question: What is your primary method for contacting your advisor?
Email
Online scheduling system
In-person drop-in
Text or chat message
When to follow up with "why?" This is crucial when you want clarity. For instance, if a student selects "Somewhat difficult" when asked about booking appointments, a simple follow-up like, "Why do you find it somewhat difficult to book?" invites richer, contextual feedback. These “why” questions get your survey closer to real reasons behind frustrations.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Include "Other" when you know some students may use unique methods or times that aren’t listed. Asking them to specify can uncover unexpected barriers or creative solutions, which is why smart follow-ups are essential.
Albion College’s research on peer mentoring showed flexible, responsive advising boosts retention by 20%, largely due to the ability to respond to student needs that “standard” questions might miss [2].
Should you use an NPS question for student advising availability?
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) question—“How likely are you to recommend our advising services to other students?”—can be a powerful, simple way to get a pulse on overall satisfaction and loyalty. NPS is widely used because it’s fast to answer and opens the door to deep follow-ups for promoters, passives, and detractors. For advising availability, it highlights overall sentiment and quickly flags problem areas without making the survey feel like a burden. Try our automated NPS survey for student advising to see it in action.
The power of follow-up questions
If there’s one feature that sets modern surveys apart, it’s the ability to ask context-aware, real-time follow-up questions. Automated probing transforms a generic form into a real conversation, surfacing insights you’d miss with static surveys. For a deeper dive, see our breakdown on automatic AI follow-up questions.
Specific’s AI follows up smartly—just like a seasoned interviewer—asking clarifications, “why’s”, or requesting examples based on student responses. This makes surveys feel more like a back-and-forth chat, not just a checkbox exercise. It also saves huge amounts of manual effort tracking down unclear answers by email later.
Student: I had trouble finding a time that worked.
AI follow-up: Can you tell me more about what times you tried and what made it difficult?
Student: I used the online system, but it didn’t work.
AI follow-up: What issue did you encounter with the online system?
How many follow-ups to ask? In our experience, survey fatigue is real—2-3 targeted follow-ups are just right. Specific makes it easy to set a maximum, and can skip to the next question once it’s clear you have enough detail. This keeps the experience smooth and focused, protecting both students’ time and the quality of your data.
This makes it a conversational survey: The back-and-forth turns surveys into a natural dialogue—students actually enjoy participating, and you capture context that’s easy to miss in old-school static forms.
Effortless qualitative analysis, even with text responses: With Specific’s AI-driven response analysis, unstructured open-ended answers are no longer overwhelming to review. AI quickly summarizes and categorizes incoming feedback—learn more in our guide to AI survey analysis.
Automated probing is a game-changer—if you haven’t tried it, generate your own survey and see how responsive, dynamic conversations reveal a richer picture of advising challenges.
How to prompt ChatGPT to generate better student advising survey questions
If you want to experiment with large language models like ChatGPT to draft your advising survey, start with a focused prompt. For a quick result:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for student survey about advising availability.
You’ll always get better questions if you give the AI more context about your campus, your goals, or the advising structure. For example:
Our college uses both drop-in and appointment-based advising in several departments, with some virtual options and peer mentors. We're trying to identify how different student groups use these services and uncover hidden access barriers. Suggest 10 open-ended survey questions for students.
Once you have a list, ask the AI to organize for you:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Then, pick the categories you want to explore further and ask:
Generate 10 questions for categories such as Scheduling Barriers, Communication Preferences, and Alternative Advising Resources.
This structured prompting taps directly into the power of AI survey generators such as Specific, letting you quickly iterate and fine-tune surveys that fit your campus’ unique context.
What is a conversational survey?
A conversational survey feels like a real exchange—where follow-up questions, clarifications, and thoughtful probing happen naturally, just as they would if a researcher was sitting across from the respondent. The difference compared to traditional surveys is huge. Let’s break it down:
Manual Survey Creation | AI-Generated (Conversational) |
---|---|
Static forms, fixed logic | Dynamic question flow, adapts in real time |
Time-consuming to build | Survey ready in seconds with AI generation |
Needs cumbersome branching setup | Smart follow-ups for deeper feedback, no extra effort |
Feedback often lacks context | Conversational, layered insights |
Manual response review | Automatic AI analysis and summaries |
Why use AI for student surveys? With AI-powered survey platforms like Specific, you unlock richer conversations, save hours of setup, and enjoy seamless response analysis. Smart generative features let you focus on acting on feedback, not managing forms. For a step-by-step guide, see our resource on how to create a survey in minutes using AI.
AI survey examples, like conversational surveys from Specific, are designed for student audiences—they’re mobile-friendly, easy to engage with, and respond in natural language. The platform’s conversational survey flow offers a best-in-class user experience, making it easier for both survey creators and student respondents to dive deeper.
See this advising availability survey example now
Don’t wait to gather actionable feedback—see an advising availability survey example and experience how instantly deployed AI surveys reveal what students need most. Tap into smarter questions, richer context, and effortless analysis with Specific’s conversational survey approach today.