Here are some of the best questions for a college graduate student survey about RA experience, plus tips on how to craft them. When you're ready, you can generate your own survey with Specific in seconds.
Best open-ended questions for college graduate student survey about RA experience
Open-ended questions let respondents share honest stories and context, ideal when you want real feedback, unexpected insights, or nuance that checkboxes miss. They're best for gathering experiences, exploring motivations, and surfacing new needs.
What specific skills or knowledge did you gain as a research assistant that you wouldn't have learned in the classroom?
Can you describe a challenging moment during your RA experience and how you handled it?
How did your relationship with the supervising faculty member influence your experience?
What were your most meaningful accomplishments or contributions as an RA?
How has participating in research shaped your future academic or career plans?
Which resources or support systems were most helpful to you during your RA role?
What advice would you give to future graduate students considering a research assistantship?
In what ways did your RA work complement or conflict with your coursework?
Can you share a story about a time when your research had a real-world impact?
What improvements or changes would make the RA experience better for future students?
This approach pays off—engaging in research projects allows students to gain hands-on experience involving experiments, data analysis, and sometimes fieldwork, providing valuable real-world perspective. [3]
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for college graduate student survey about RA experience
Single-select multiple-choice questions are perfect when you want to quantify experiences, benchmark sentiment, or quickly surface trends. They're also helpful as conversation starters: picking a choice often feels easier than recalling a detailed story, so you get quick input, then invite deeper feedback if you want more detail later.
Question: How satisfied were you with the research resources provided to you as an RA?
Very satisfied
Satisfied
Neutral
Dissatisfied
Very dissatisfied
Question: Which skill did you develop most during your RA experience?
Data analysis
Coding/technical skills
Critical thinking
Project management
Other
Question: Did you present your research at a conference or professional meeting as an RA?
Yes
No
When to follow up with "why?" Whenever a choice could mean many different things for different people or you want to unpack a respondent's reasoning, that's the moment to ask “Why?” or “Can you tell me more?” For example, if someone selects “Neutral” on satisfaction, a smart follow-up like, “What could have improved your satisfaction with research resources?” helps you learn what matters most to graduate students.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? If you suspect your options aren't exhaustive, always include "Other." This gives respondents permission to offer unique feedback and, with a follow-up, can reveal overlooked opportunities. For skills questions, this might surface niche abilities you hadn’t considered.
Research assistantships provide chances to contribute to publications and present findings at conferences—these structured choices help you track that impact at scale. [2]
NPS-style question for college graduate student surveys: does it make sense?
The net promoter score (NPS) is a proven way to quickly gauge overall sentiment and loyalty. With one question, you capture whether graduate students would recommend the RA experience to peers—a strong, actionable metric for any program. It's especially relevant when you want to benchmark overall satisfaction and identify both enthusiasts and detractors, helping you prioritize follow-up and program improvements.
To try it out instantly, you can create an NPS survey tailored for college graduate student RA experience in one click.
The power of follow-up questions
Follow-up questions are a secret weapon for surfacing richer insights. Instead of a one-way data dump, they help you clarify, dig deeper, and really understand the story behind each answer. That’s why automated follow-up questions are a pillar of Specific’s surveys. Our AI asks smart, in-context questions in real time—so you gather deeper, clearer responses without endless email threads or manual digging.
Graduate student: "I was somewhat satisfied with the mentorship I received."
AI follow-up: "Can you tell me more about what made the mentorship only somewhat satisfying? Was there something that could have improved it?"
Without the follow-up, we’d get a vague answer. With it, we unlock specifics—whether it’s response speed, depth of feedback, or availability.
How many followups to ask? We’ve found that 2-3 follow-ups are usually the sweet spot: enough to clarify, but not overwhelm. With Specific, you can fine-tune this—set a maximum, or let respondents skip ahead when they feel done.
This makes it a conversational survey: it feels natural, like a real interview, which encourages better and more thoughtful participation.
AI survey analysis made easy: Even with lots of unstructured text, it’s simple to analyze responses with AI. Just chat with the data—Specific’s tools distill qualitative answers and surface actionable insights without manual effort.
Automated follow-ups aren’t just a buzzword—try generating your own AI survey and see how much clearer and more contextual your feedback becomes.
How to prompt ChatGPT (or GPT-4) for college graduate student RA experience questions
You can use AI tools like ChatGPT to workshop your own survey questions. Here’s a basic prompt to start:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for College Graduate Student survey about RA Experience.
If you want better, more relevant results, add more context about your needs:
I coordinate graduate research assistant programs at a university. Suggest 10 open-ended questions to help me understand what college graduate students gain from their RA experience, what challenges they face, and how we can improve support.
Once you have your questions, organize and refine:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Choose the categories most important to your goals, then dig deeper:
Generate 10 follow-up questions focusing specifically on skill-building and mentorship in RA experiences.
This iterative approach, combined with the structure provided by a tool like Specific’s survey generator, ensures your questions are thorough, contextually relevant, and tailored to college graduate student experiences.
What is a conversational survey (and why use AI survey generators)?
A conversational survey feels like a natural chat—think of it as an interview with purpose, not a sterile form. AI survey generators, like Specific’s platform, are changing what’s possible because they automate both follow-ups and analysis.
Manual Surveys | AI-Generated Conversational Surveys |
|---|---|
Linear forms; static questions | Dynamically adapts based on responses |
Requires manual follow-up and analysis | Real-time probing and automated AI analysis |
Lower participation due to survey fatigue | Feels like a genuine conversation |
Slow to implement; time-consuming to tweak | Edit and launch instantly via AI survey editor |
Why use AI for college graduate student surveys? AI-powered surveys adapt to every respondent, ask the right follow-ups, and give maximum flexibility for creators. For busy graduate students, talking to an AI feels less like an “assignment” and more like being heard by a smart peer—they’re more likely to share meaningful answers. For staff, it means easy setup, rapid iteration, and on-demand insights that would take hours by hand.
AI survey example forms—especially conversational surveys—help maximize participation and surface nuances you might miss with static forms. Our research shows that engaging, dynamic feedback processes are essential for education surveys, discovery interviews, or program evaluations. Specific offers best-in-class experience so that both survey creators and graduate students enjoy a smooth, useful feedback loop. If you want step-by-step guidance, check out how to create a college graduate student survey about RA experience in minutes.
See this RA experience survey example now
Take action and experience a survey built for real discovery—clear, conversational, AI-powered, and tailored to college graduate students. Start collecting deep, relevant feedback faster than ever.