Here are some of the best questions for a student survey about counseling services, alongside practical tips for crafting a great survey. You can quickly build your own student counseling services survey with Specific in seconds.
Best open-ended questions for student survey about counseling services
Open-ended questions give students space to share honest, detailed feedback in their own words—making them ideal for uncovering real experiences, unmet needs, and areas for growth. We use these questions when depth and rich stories matter, not just checkboxes.
These types of questions encourage students to elaborate, providing nuanced, comprehensive responses that are simply not possible with closed-ended queries. The quality of insight goes up, though you may see higher nonresponse rates—on average, open-ended items in surveys receive up to 18% nonresponse versus 1-2% on closed items. Still, the deeper understanding gained is well worth it, especially when exploring a complex topic like counseling services for students [1][2].
Here are 10 open-ended questions we’ve found most valuable for a student survey about counseling services:
How would you describe your overall experience with our counseling services?
What motivated you to seek out counseling services on campus?
What challenges have you faced when accessing counseling support?
Which aspects of our counseling services do you find most helpful, and why?
Is there anything you wish was different about the support you received?
Can you share a moment when counseling services made a positive impact on your student life?
Are there resources or topics you’d like to see added to our services?
In what ways do you think our counseling services could better support diverse backgrounds and needs?
What suggestions do you have for making our services more accessible or appealing to students?
If you’ve chosen not to use counseling services, can you share your reasons?
Open-ended items like these allow students to provide meaningful context, share authentic perspectives, and surface actionable insights to inform more student-centered decisions [3].
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for student survey about counseling services
Single-select multiple-choice questions are perfect when we need to easily quantify feedback or lower the barrier for responses. Sometimes, students feel more comfortable starting with a quick choice before sharing more. This is especially useful to jumpstart a conversation, segment results, or quickly spot trends that merit further exploration.
Here are three practical examples:
Question: How did you first hear about our counseling services?
University website
Faculty or staff member
Friends or classmates
Orientation session
Other
Question: How satisfied are you with the availability of counseling appointments?
Very satisfied
Somewhat satisfied
Neutral
Somewhat dissatisfied
Very dissatisfied
Question: What type of counseling format do you prefer?
In-person sessions
Online/virtual sessions
Group workshops
Self-guided resources
Other
When to follow up with "why?" Follow-up "why?" questions work wonders right after a rating or selection—especially if you want to understand the “why behind the what.” If a student says they're dissatisfied with appointment availability, for example, asking “Why?” as the next step can reveal root causes like scheduling conflicts or unclear booking processes.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always consider "Other" when you’re not certain your list covers all options, or you want to surface anything you didn’t expect. The best insights can come from unexpected student needs—and with a smart follow-up, you’ll quickly uncover what matters most.
NPS questions for counseling services: should you use one?
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) simply asks: “How likely are you to recommend our counseling services to another student?” on a scale of 0-10. It’s widely used because it boils overall sentiment down to a single, trackable metric that’s easy to benchmark and compare over time. For student counseling services, using an NPS question can help us track satisfaction at a glance, spot detractors early, and focus on delivering a student experience that keeps improving.
If you want to see how this works, try generating your own NPS survey for students about counseling services in one click with Specific. The AI even adapts follow-up questions based on each student’s score—making feedback richer, not just a number.
The power of follow-up questions
Smart follow-ups are the secret to truly conversational surveys. Automated follow-up questions—like those powered by Specific’s AI-powered interviews—can instantly clarify confusing responses, dive deeper into the “why,” and gather context you’d otherwise have to chase over email later. This conversational flow feels natural and really opens up the discussion, even if students start with brief replies.
Student: "It was okay, but sometimes hard to book."
AI follow-up: "Could you tell us more about what made booking challenging? Was it the timing, the process itself, or something else?"
How many follow-ups to ask? Usually, 2-3 tailored follow-ups are enough to uncover actionable feedback, while respecting students’ time. And you can always enable a setting to continue or skip ahead once you’ve gathered enough detail—Specific puts this option in your hands.
This makes it a conversational survey—students feel like they’re chatting, not just checking boxes, which leads to higher engagement and more authentic feedback.
AI response analysis—With so much unstructured input, analyzing everything could be overwhelming. But with AI like Specific’s, summarizing and exploring themes from text responses is downright simple (see how to analyze student survey responses with AI).
Try creating a survey with automated follow-ups—you’ll see just how much deeper conversations (and insights) can go, effortlessly.
How to prompt ChatGPT for creating student counseling services survey questions
The right prompt makes all the difference. Start simple, then add detail for sharper, more relevant results:
For initial brainstorming, try:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for student survey about counseling services.
But if you want even better, more tailored questions, give the AI more context about your goals, student demographic, and what you want to learn. For example:
We’re evaluating campus counseling services for undergraduate students. Our aim is to uncover barriers to access, understand diverse needs, and improve mental health outcomes. Suggest 10 open-ended questions that dig deep into student experiences and specific support gaps.
Then, to structure your results:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Next, focus on categories you want to explore and go deeper:
Generate 10 questions for categories such as “accessibility” and “impact.” Make sure questions target the root causes of student challenges with counseling services.
What is a conversational survey?
In a nutshell, a conversational survey turns feedback into a real dialogue—AI-powered interviews that adapt, clarify, and genuinely listen. Instead of one-way forms and checkbox fatigue, students feel heard and engaged from start to finish.
Manual Surveys | AI-Generated Conversational Surveys |
Rigid, scripted questions | Dynamic questions, adapts to each answer |
Low engagement, often impersonal | Feels like a genuine conversation; higher response quality |
Follow-ups require extra effort | Built-in, real-time follow-ups for context |
Analysis is manual, slow, and error-prone | AI does instant summaries and deep-dive analysis |
Harder to scale, takes more time to build | Survey creation is as fast as chatting; easy to scale |
Why use AI for student surveys? It’s not just about speed—it’s about better data, less survey fatigue, and insights you can actually act on. An AI survey example adapts in real time, making follow-ups as natural as a coffee chat while producing robust, actionable results.
Specific packs all this expertise and fresh technology into a seamless user experience. Its conversational survey builder, integrated AI follow-ups, and instant analysis tools set the gold standard for collecting meaningful student feedback about counseling services. If you want to dig into the mechanics, check our deep dive on how to create student counseling services surveys—it’s packed with actionable tips.
See this counseling services survey example now
Create your counseling services survey in minutes—it’s easier than you think to launch a smart, conversational survey that delivers truly actionable student insights. Generate smart questions, let AI handle personalized follow-ups, and get results you can trust to improve your support services.