Survey template: College Doctoral Student survey about mental health and well-being

Use and try this AI survey template designed for college doctoral students to gather honest feedback about mental health and well-being—Specific’s conversational surveys make the process easier and more insightful than ever for both creators and respondents.

What is a conversational survey and why AI makes it better for college doctoral students?

Creating an effective college doctoral student mental health and well-being survey isn’t easy. Traditional forms often feel impersonal or intimidating—especially when it comes to topics as sensitive as mental health. That’s where an AI-powered conversational survey template from Specific can flip the script.

Instead of rigid page-after-page forms, conversational surveys use AI to mimic a natural chat—respondents answer one question at a time, with followups driven by their own answers. For students who already face pressure, overwhelm, and time constraints, this creates a safer environment to share their real experiences. Studies show that nearly 40% of graduate students globally experience symptoms of anxiety or depression—a rate six times higher than the general population [2]; making it crucial to lower any barriers to honest feedback and help schools, departments, or researchers act on what’s really going on.

Manual vs. AI-generated surveys

Why use AI for college doctoral student surveys?

• Responsive design: AI tailors the survey in real-time based on responses, making it more comfortable for students to open up.

• Richer data: Open conversation surfaces subtle challenges (academic pressure, financial stress, isolation) that canned forms miss.

• Better experience: The familiar chat interface feels friendly, not clinical, fitting seamlessly into how students communicate every day.

We’ve built Specific specifically to offer the best-in-class user experience for both the people running the survey and those answering it. If you’re looking to craft your own AI survey template, you can also start from scratch with our AI survey generator to cover other topics or audiences.

Want to see what questions work best for this audience? Check out our guide on the best questions to ask in a college doctoral student mental health and well-being survey.

Automatic follow-up questions based on previous reply

What really sets Specific’s AI survey template apart is its ability to ask smart follow-up questions in real time. When a doctoral student gives an answer—especially on sensitive or nuanced topics like burnout, anxiety, or financial pressure—the AI acts like a skilled interviewer and digs deeper. This uncovers fuller context, helping you capture detailed stories, not half-complete soundbites. Given that 24% of Ph.D. students experience clinically significant symptoms of depression, and 17% report symptoms of anxiety [1], surfacing specifics with additional context is critical.

• Doctoral student: “Sometimes I feel overwhelmed.”

• AI follow-up: “Could you share what situations trigger those feelings the most during your studies?”

• Doctoral student: “I’m worried about finances.”

• AI follow-up: “How does that financial stress impact your academic work and well-being day to day?”

Without these targeted follow-ups, you’re left guessing what actually matters. If you want to step away from guesswork and experience how a conversational survey feels, try generating a survey with Specific and notice the difference firsthand.

By making the survey a true conversation—responsive and adaptive—it’s far easier for students to open up, making this a real conversational survey in every sense.

Easy editing, like magic

Editing your survey should never feel like wrangling with spreadsheets or endless dropdowns. With the AI survey editor from Specific, you just describe what you want changed—“ask more about stressors,” “add a question about lab workload,” or “make tone more encouraging”—and the AI instantly updates the survey using expert knowledge. What used to take hours or back-and-forth can now be done in seconds.

If you want your template to fit how your department, research group, or student cohort talks and thinks, it’s as simple as chatting with the editor. No need for technical skills—the AI does all the heavy lifting.

Flexible delivery: page or in-product survey

Delivering your college doctoral student mental health and well-being survey should be as flexible as the audience requires. Whether you need to reach students via email, a course portal, or directly inside your own software, Specific’s mobile-friendly format works for everyone.

• Sharable landing page surveys are perfect for sending via department email blasts, Slack, or including in campus newsletters—just drop the link, and students can respond anonymously from any device at their convenience.

• In-product surveys are ideal if you have a student portal, research tool, or mental health app—embed the conversational survey as a widget so students can reflect and respond in context, right when it’s top of mind.

For college mental health and well-being, landing page delivery often makes sense—students value privacy and convenience, plus there’s no login, so barriers are low. But if you want immediate, context-rich feedback within an app or online service, the in-product widget is incredibly effective too.

Instant AI survey analysis—no manual work required

Collecting responses is just the start. With Specific’s AI survey response analysis, results are summarized instantly—the platform picks out main themes, flags issues like burnout or isolation, and even lets your team chat with the AI about the data. No more sorting through wordy answers. If you want to go deeper, learn more in our article on how to analyze college doctoral student mental health and well-being survey responses with AI.

The platform’s AI handles topic detection, creates custom summaries, and allows easy qualitative analysis, helping you spot trends—like financial anxiety or support gaps—fast. With “automated survey insights,” you get actionable next steps, not just a pile of text.

Use this mental health and well-being survey template now

Gather meaningful input from doctoral students about their well-being, surface actionable insights, and make your next survey effortless—try this template and see the difference that conversational AI makes.