Here are some of the best questions for a student survey about campus events, plus practical tips for crafting them. With Specific, you can build a conversational survey in seconds—no forms, just smart chat.
Best open-ended questions for student survey about campus events
Open-ended questions deliver rich, actionable feedback and help uncover motivations, unmet needs, and ideas you haven't even considered. They're ideal when you want your respondents to share details in their own words—especially for understanding barriers to participation and students' true opinions.
What was the most memorable campus event you attended this semester? What made it stand out?
How do you usually find out about upcoming campus events?
Describe a time you wished to attend a campus event but could not. What stopped you?
What types of campus events are you most interested in, and why?
How could campus events be improved to better fit your schedule?
Tell us about an event you think the campus should host next semester.
What would make you more likely to participate in campus activities?
How do you feel campus events affect your sense of belonging or connection here?
Share any suggestions for events that would bring more students together.
What challenges do you or your peers face when trying to attend campus events?
Open questions are especially valuable in surfacing nuanced insights about barriers to participation—did you know that 41% of students cite event timing and location as primary barriers? [1] Getting students to narrate their personal experience helps you design events they'll actually attend.
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for student survey about campus events
Single-select multiple-choice questions make it easy to quantify results and spot trends. When you want to benchmark habits, preferences, or satisfaction across groups, or gently prompt less-engaged students to participate, they’re a great fit. They can also spark conversation—sometimes it’s less overwhelming for students to pick an option than to jump into a blank text box. From here, you can dig deeper with follow-up questions.
Question: How often do you attend campus events?
Never
Occasionally (1-2 times/semester)
Frequently (monthly)
Very often (weekly or more)
Question: What prevents you from attending more campus events?
Timing conflicts
Location too far/inconvenient
Lack of interest in topics
Work or family obligations
Other
Question: Which event formats do you prefer?
Workshops
Guest speakers
Social mixers
Performances/concerts
Other
When to follow up with "why?" Use a follow-up "why" question when you want to get to core motivations behind an answer. For instance, if a student selects "work or family obligations," follow up by asking, “Why do those obligations prevent you from attending? Is it timing, duration, or something else?” This context gives life to the numbers.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always add "Other" when you want to avoid shutting out perspectives not captured in your options. Follow-up prompts here can reveal unexpected issues or new event ideas.
Single-select questions also help quantify engagement. Did you know that 49% of students at two-year colleges haven’t attended any campus events? [2] These quick picks make it possible to spot blind spots and invite deeper feedback through follow-ups.
NPS question: measuring event advocacy
Net Promoter Score (NPS) isn’t just for products—it’s a proven way to measure students’ likelihood to recommend campus events to their peers. NPS quickly shows overall sentiment and helps segment respondents into promoters, passives, and detractors so you can tailor your follow-ups. For campus events, it’s powerful for gauging word-of-mouth potential and satisfaction. If you want a head start, try Specific’s NPS survey builder for students and campus events.
Here’s an example NPS question you might use:
How likely are you to recommend attending campus events to a friend or classmate? (Scale: 0 = Not at all likely, 10 = Extremely likely)
Following up with “Why did you give that score?” often uncovers pain points and what drives promoters to spread the word.
The power of follow-up questions
Follow-up questions are fundamental for getting clear, detailed feedback—especially in conversational surveys. Instead of collecting vague answers, Specific’s AI asks targeted follow-ups in real time, extracting the full story. That means you don’t have to chase students for clarification afterwards.
Student: “Events don’t fit my schedule.”
AI follow-up: “Which days or times would work better for you?”
Or:
Student: “I’m not interested in most events.”
AI follow-up: “What kind of topics or formats would you be excited to see more of?”
How many follow-ups to ask? In practice, two or three follow-ups are enough to get to the bottom of most issues—especially when your survey gives students the option to skip further questions once the key detail is gathered. Specific lets you configure this setting for maximum flexibility.
This makes it a conversational survey: Each response becomes part of a dynamic back-and-forth, so students feel heard and are more likely to share honestly.
Qualitative data, easy analysis: With all this unstructured feedback, you might worry about the time it’ll take to analyze. Thanks to AI survey response analysis tools, extracting common themes and actionable next steps is now effortless.
AI-powered conversational surveys have increased response rates by up to 25% and reduced abandonment by 30% compared to traditional forms [5]. Try generating a survey for yourself with Specific and see how much deeper you can go.
How to prompt ChatGPT to come up with great student survey questions about campus events
If you want to brainstorm or get started quickly, use a large language model like ChatGPT. While you can ask for a list of questions, adding more context yields better results.
Basic prompt to generate ideas:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for student survey about campus events.
If you want richer output, add context about your audience, situation, and goals:
I’m organizing a student engagement initiative at a mid-sized public university. My goal: understand what helps or hinders students in attending campus events, and what new types of events would draw more diverse participation. Suggest 10 open-ended survey questions that can guide us to actionable improvements.
Next, ask the AI to organize ideas for structure:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Finally, focus your research:
Generate 10 questions for categories “Barriers to participation” and “Ideas for new events.”
This method saves time and inspires clarity, especially if you’re using an AI survey generator to turn prompts straight into conversational surveys.
What is a conversational survey?
Traditional surveys feel like paperwork, but conversational surveys mimic the back-and-forth of real conversation—making feedback feel casual, dynamic, and low-pressure. Specific’s conversational experience adapts replies in real time, clarifies confusion, and prompts deeper insights automatically.
Manual Surveys | AI-Generated Conversational Surveys |
---|---|
Scripted, static lists of questions | Dynamic, adapts in real time |
Impersonal feel, easy to abandon | Engaging, feels like texting with a real person |
Hard to analyze free-form answers | AI distills and summarizes qualitative data in seconds |
Labor-intensive to update or iterate | Instant editing and regeneration with AI assistance |
Why use AI for student surveys? Studies show that AI-powered chat surveys elicit more informative, detailed responses than static forms [6], and can surface participation barriers you might miss with rigid options. If you want to see a complete example or learn how to set up your own in minutes, check out our step-by-step guide to creating a student survey about campus events.
With Specific, you get not just survey templates but a best-in-class conversational survey experience, so both survey creators and students find the feedback process smooth and insightful.
See this campus events survey example now
Get tailored questions, rich follow-up insights, and easy analysis—see your student campus events survey come to life instantly with a conversational experience designed for actionable results.