Best questions for college undergraduate student survey about sense of belonging

Here are some of the best questions for a college undergraduate student survey about sense of belonging, plus our tips on how to craft them. We recommend using Specific to build a survey like this in seconds—entirely conversational, thoughtful, and ready for deep insights.

Best open-ended questions for a sense of belonging survey

Open-ended questions uncover what students truly feel—without boxing them into predefined answers. They’re vital when you want detailed context or stories in your college undergraduate student survey about sense of belonging, especially to catch nuances you’d otherwise miss. Adding a few of these lets each voice be heard, revealing opportunities to foster inclusion.

1. What makes you feel most connected to this college community?

2. Can you describe a moment when you felt like you truly belonged here?

3. Have you ever felt excluded or out of place on campus? What happened?

4. What barriers, if any, have you faced when trying to participate in campus activities?

5. How do relationships with peers or faculty influence your sense of belonging?

6. What campus traditions or events have made you feel included?

7. Is there something about your background, identity, or personality that affects how you fit in here?

8. How has your sense of belonging changed since you first arrived at college?

9. What would you suggest to make the campus feel more welcoming?

10. Is there anything that has helped you feel valued by the institution or the community?

Asking these questions is even more valuable given that a stunning 90% of first-year students feel comfortable being themselves at their institution, but substantial gaps persist for underrepresented groups [1][2]. With diverse, open responses, you’ll spot those critical differences you might otherwise miss.

Top single-select multiple-choice questions to add

Single-select multiple-choice questions simplify data collection when you need to quantify trends or kick off deeper conversations. They help respondents—college undergraduate students in this case—quickly indicate where they stand, so you can follow up with more targeted questions based on their choices.

Question: How strongly do you agree with the statement: "I feel like part of the college community."

• Strongly agree

• Somewhat agree

• Neutral

• Somewhat disagree

• Strongly disagree

Question: How often do you participate in extracurricular activities or campus events?

• Very often

• Sometimes

• Rarely

• Never

Question: What is the main factor that most influences your sense of belonging at this college?

• Supportive peers or friends

• Faculty or staff support

• Personal interest groups/clubs

• Campus environment/culture

• Other

When to followup with "why?" We always dig for the “why” after single-select questions if an answer looks ambiguous or needs more detail. For example, if a student selects “Sometimes” for participation in campus events, the follow-up could be: “Can you share what factors make it harder or easier for you to attend these events?” This opens the door for richer feedback and context.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? It’s smart to add “Other” when you can’t confidently cover every reason or context with your listed options. When chosen, a follow-up like “What would you add that’s not listed here?” lets you uncover unexpected themes or overlooked barriers in student experiences.

Should you include an NPS-style question?

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) format works well in a college undergraduate student survey about sense of belonging, offering a simple way to benchmark satisfaction and advocacy over time. NPS asks: “How likely are you to recommend this college to others, based on your sense of belonging?” with a 0–10 scale, giving you clear, actionable data on who feels most engaged and who may be struggling. This is especially useful for tracking progress as you make initiatives to improve inclusion and connection across campus.

If you want to add this, Specific lets you instantly generate an NPS survey for sense of belonging—plus it asks smart follow-ups, too.

The power of follow-up questions

Follow-up questions are where surveys come alive. They reveal the “why” behind a response, clarify details, and uncover nuances—things that are so often lost in traditional, rigid survey forms. If you want to see how this works, check out our overview of automated AI follow-up questions, which automatically probe for clarity and depth in real time, adapting to each respondent.

With Specific’s AI, every answer gets contextually intelligent follow-ups. For example:

• Student: “Sometimes I feel left out during campus events.”

• AI follow-up: “Can you share more about which events make you feel this way? Are there particular reasons or situations that stand out?”

If you skip these, you risk staying in the dark:

• Student: “It’s okay most days.”

• (No follow-up = no insight into what makes it better or worse!)

How many followups to ask? We generally recommend 2-3 followups for most questions. That’s enough to get to the heart of things, while Specific allows you to skip ahead if you’ve already got what you need. You can fine-tune this in the survey settings, so no one feels “interrogated.”

This makes it a conversational survey: Followups transform static surveys into conversations—respondents feel understood, not processed. It’s the next level of engagement for feedback collection.

AI-driven analysis: Even if you’re collecting thousands of words of unstructured text, AI makes it almost effortless to summarize, categorize, and dig for themes. You can learn more about analyzing these student survey responses using the methods in our guide to survey analysis with AI.

These automated follow-ups are a leap forward—try generating a survey yourself to see how naturally the conversation flows and how much richer the answers become.

How to write a great prompt for AI survey questions

Let’s talk about prompts. If you want ChatGPT (or another GPT-powered tool) to generate strong questions for your next sense of belonging survey, start simple:

First, use:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for College Undergraduate Student survey about Sense Of Belonging.

But context always boosts quality—so provide more background:

Our college is a large, urban campus with a very diverse undergraduate student population (including first-generation, international, and transfer students). We want to identify barriers to belonging, and understand what makes students feel genuinely valued here. Please suggest 10 open-ended questions for our college undergraduate student survey about sense of belonging, focusing on inclusion, community, and support systems.

Next, to organize results:

Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.

After reviewing the categories, explore what matters most:

Generate 10 questions for the categories “barriers to participation” and “positive experiences of inclusion.”

This workflow mirrors how we use conversational AI survey editors—refining and expanding with every round until you land on questions that’ll truly surface insights.

What is a conversational survey—and why go all-in?

Conversational surveys use AI to emulate a real-life interviewer—they ask your questions (open, closed, or even NPS), deliver quick follow-ups, and adapt based on answers. Students reply just as they would in a chat, making it intuitive and engaging. We’ve seen this approach outperform traditional surveys, especially on campus where attention is short and time is limited.

Let’s look at how manual vs. AI-generated surveys stack up:

Why use AI for college undergraduate student surveys? AI-driven survey tools like Specific tap into the full context of student responses. They make surveys feel like a natural conversation (not a test), so you reach even hard-to-engage students. Plus, AI distills everything into actionable insights—one reason many institutions are using AI survey builders as their new standard.

Specific’s conversational survey experience makes the entire feedback process smoother for everyone involved—no more forms fatigue, and every student’s perspective gets valued. If you want a step-by-step breakdown, check out our guide to creating sense of belonging surveys.

See this sense of belonging survey example now

Get started and create your own sense of belonging survey for undergraduates today—collect deeper, more honest feedback, and surface the insights you actually need to shape a stronger student community. Experience the impact of conversational surveys for yourself with AI-driven follow-ups, instant analysis, and an interface students will actually enjoy using.