Best questions for high school junior student survey about college major exploration

Here are some of the best questions for a high school junior student survey about college major exploration—plus quick tips for creating them well. You can instantly build your own AI-powered survey with Specific in seconds.

The best open-ended questions for high school junior student surveys

Open-ended questions let students express thoughts in their own words, revealing unique motivations and context you’d never get from a checklist. Use them when you want authentic insights, not just statistics. Here's our shortlist of the most effective open-ended questions:

1. What are your top interests or hobbies, and how do they influence your college major preferences?

2. Can you describe a class or activity that made you think differently about a subject?

3. How do you envision your ideal career, and what major do you think best connects to it?

4. What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far in deciding on a college major?

5. Are there any majors you’ve ruled out? If so, why?

6. Who or what inspires you most in your academic journey?

7. How do your family’s expectations affect your choices about college majors?

8. What type of classes or experiences do you wish you had more of to help make your decision?

9. What are your main concerns about picking a major in high school?

10. If you could design your own college major, what would it look like and why?

This approach pays off. According to ACT Inc., nearly 80% of high school graduates had already chosen a major, but only 36% picked one aligned with their actual interests—a mismatch that often leads to dissatisfaction or major changes down the line. [1]

The best single-select multiple-choice questions for high school junior student surveys

Single-select multiple-choice questions are your go-to if you want to quantify responses or get students thinking before a deeper follow-up. They're faster for respondents—sometimes it’s easier to choose a solid option from a list, especially before shaping a more thoughtful answer. Consider these sample questions for your college major exploration survey:

Question: Which area most interests you when considering a college major?

• STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math)

• Humanities

• Social Sciences

• Business

• Arts

• Health Professions

• Undecided

• Other

Question: What influences your choice of college major the most?

• Personal interest

• Job prospects

• Parental advice

• Teacher/mentor advice

• Salary expectations

• Other

Question: How confident do you feel about choosing a college major right now?

• Very confident

• Somewhat confident

• Not very confident

• Not at all confident

• Other

When to follow up with "why?" Multiple choice gives you structure, but the true value often surfaces with a “why?” follow-up—especially when a choice doesn’t explain itself. Example: If a student selects "Parental advice" as their main influence, ask, "Why does your parent's advice matter most to you when picking a major?" This opens up a conversation, revealing deeper insights and context.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? Use "Other" to give students an outlet if their answer doesn’t fit your list. This can lead to follow-up questions like, "Please tell us more about the area or influence you selected as 'Other.'" Often, that's where the most surprising discoveries happen.

Should you use an NPS question?

NPS—Net Promoter Score—is a gold standard for measuring loyalty (“How likely are you to recommend X?”). For high school juniors navigating college major choices, it makes sense to ask something like, “How likely are you to recommend exploring different college majors early in high school to your peers?” Measuring enthusiasm for the exploration process itself reveals how students value guidance and support during this transition. You can generate a tailored NPS survey for high school juniors in just a click, making this quick and seamless to add.

The power of follow-up questions

Automated follow-up questions are a game-changer—especially in a conversational survey. They turn a survey into real dialogue and help clarify ambiguities as they crop up. Specific’s AI-powered follow-up feature generates intelligent follow-ups in real time, probing for crucial details when a reply is vague or incomplete. This process transforms basic answers into deeply contextual stories—saving you countless hours compared to manual follow-up by email and ensuring nothing gets lost in translation.

• Student: "I'm interested in science."

• AI follow-up: "That’s great! Is there a specific branch of science, such as biology or engineering, that appeals to you most—if so, why?"

How many followups to ask? Generally, 2–3 follow-ups strike the sweet spot—enough to get richer context, but not so many that students feel grilled. With Specific, you can easily set limits, and the AI will skip ahead when it’s gathered what it needs.

This makes it a conversational survey: The process feels like a thoughtful back-and-forth, not an interrogation or form—respondents engage more, and you surface more actionable insights as a result.

AI analysis of survey responses: Worried about sorting through all that text? Let AI do the heavy lifting. Even large volumes of qualitative data are easy to analyze, summarize, and search through thanks to AI-powered response analysis—with rapid chat-based insight extraction.

Automated follow-up questions are a new standard—give the AI survey generator a spin and see how smart, natural, and useful your survey can become.

How to generate great questions with ChatGPT or other GPTs

If you prefer getting creative with AI prompts, here’s a quick recipe for success when asking ChatGPT or similar models for survey question ideas:

Start simple, then add context as needed:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for High School Junior Student survey about College Major Exploration.

For even better results, add more detail about your situation—like this:

Our school is aiming to help high school junior students align their interests with possible college majors. Suggest 10 thoughtful open-ended questions to include in a student survey on this topic, focusing on career aspirations, concerns, and influences.

Then, organize your ideas for clarity:

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

Finally, dig deeper—go category by category:

Generate 10 questions for the category 'career aspirations'.

Let each step guide the AI to deliver refined, comprehensive lists that you can tweak, edit, or combine in your custom survey design.

What is a conversational survey?

Conversational surveys reinvent feedback. Unlike traditional surveys—long forms that feel cold, transactional, and rigid—AI-driven conversational surveys feel human. They adapt to the flow of responses in real time, weave in follow-up questions for clarity, and keep students engaged. This difference is even more profound for young people: when surveys feel like a chat, students relax, share more, and stay engaged until the end.

Here’s a quick mini-table showing the difference:

Why use AI for high school junior student surveys? Most junior students already use AI tools in their daily lives (86% according to recent research, with 24% relying on them every day). [2] Leveraging a smart, AI-powered survey builder feels familiar and natural—plus it makes guided college major exploration far more effective and engaging for both schools and students. Given that more than 90% of UK university students now use AI for their coursework (up from two-thirds the prior year!) [3], these tools help set the stage for their next steps.

If you want the definitive hands-on guide to survey building, try the walkthrough on creating a survey for high school juniors—you’ll see just how easy and powerful modern AI survey tools like Specific really are.

Specific delivers the best-in-class conversational survey experience, keeping students engaged and making the feedback process seamless for both creators and respondents.

See this college major exploration survey example now

Make every response count: see for yourself how conversational AI surveys instantly collect rich, honest insights from high school junior students exploring college majors. Start now for smarter decisions, deeper understanding, and a better student experience.