Here are some of the best questions for a high school sophomore student survey about college readiness, plus tips for crafting them effectively. You can build your own survey in seconds using Specific—no guesswork or lengthy setup required.
Best open-ended questions for college readiness surveys
Open-ended questions get richer, deeper responses because students aren’t limited by predefined choices. These questions are especially valuable when you want honest insights, unfiltered by your assumptions. We use them to capture what students really think, not just what they think we want to hear.
Here are our top 10 open-ended questions for a high school sophomore student survey about college readiness:
What does “being ready for college” mean to you personally?
What are your biggest worries or concerns about starting college?
Which skills do you feel most prepared with, and which do you feel need the most improvement before college?
Can you describe any support or resources that would help you feel more confident about college?
What classes or subjects do you find most challenging right now, and why?
How do you usually manage your time, assignments, and study habits?
What steps have you taken so far to prepare for college applications (research, visits, talking with counselors, etc.)?
Is anyone (parent, teacher, friend) helping or advising you about college? How?
What’s one thing about college that excites you the most?
If you could change one thing about your current school to help you get ready for college, what would it be?
Open-ended questions are powerful when you’re looking to identify themes, gaps, and opportunities in your readiness programs. They help reveal the “why” behind what students feel, which can uncover needs you didn’t know existed. With national data showing that just 1 in 5 high school seniors actually meet all core college-readiness benchmarks even though the majority feel confident, it’s critical to go beyond surface-level responses to really understand the disconnect. [1]
Best single-select multiple-choice questions
Single-select multiple-choice questions shine when you want to measure, compare, or quickly quantify key issues. They make it easier for students to participate—sometimes a menu of simple options is all it takes to get them started. Once you spot trends or red flags, you can dive deeper with tailored follow-ups.
Question: How confident do you feel about your academic preparedness for college?
Very confident
Somewhat confident
Not very confident
Not at all confident
Question: Which area do you feel you need the most support in before college?
Math
Reading and writing
Study skills/time management
Choosing the right college
Other
Question: Have you spoken with a school counselor or advisor about college plans?
Yes, regularly
Yes, once or twice
No, but I plan to
No, and I don’t plan to
When to followup with "why?" If a student selects “Not very confident” about their preparedness, always ask why. This additional context uncovers whether their concern is about academic skills, application processes, financial aid, or something completely different. It turns quantitative data into actionable insights.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Including "Other" invites unexpected perspectives and avoids forcing students into boxes. Always add a followup: "Can you tell us more about this area?" This opens the door to unique personal challenges or creative solutions you may not have considered.
Consider that in California, just 22% of 2024 graduates were rated college-ready by standardized test scores, yet student self-confidence remains high. [2] Single-select questions help validate those perceptions and highlight where added support is needed.
NPS for college readiness: Does it make sense here?
NPS (Net Promoter Score) is traditionally used for customer satisfaction but works surprisingly well in education, too. For high school sophomore students, it’s a quick way to gauge overall sentiment about school preparation:
How likely are you to recommend your school’s college readiness programs to a friend or classmate? (Scale: 0 = Not at all likely, 10 = Extremely likely)
It provides an instant pulse on perceived effectiveness and can be paired with a followup like "What’s the main reason for your score?" for deeper analysis. This approach is especially valid given the high rate of remedial courses that students still need in college—over 65% take remedial math and 52% take remedial reading or writing, exposing gaps that students may sense but not fully articulate. [3]
Want to try it? Generate an NPS survey now and see how it feels in context.
The power of follow-up questions
Automated, real-time follow-up questions are a game changer. They transform the survey from a static Q&A into a genuine, adaptive conversation. If you want to see how it works in action, check out our guide on AI-powered follow-up questions—it has examples for education surveys and more.
With Specific, our AI agent asks smart, contextual follow-ups—just like a skilled interviewer. This makes respondents’ answers clearer, closes gaps, and minimizes back-and-forth emails. The result? Far richer, more actionable insights, delivered instantly. Here’s a quick example:
Sophomore Student: I’m worried I’m not ready for college math.
AI follow-up: Can you share what specifically worries you about college math? Is it the difficulty level, lack of support, or something else?
How many followups to ask? In general, 2–3 targeted follow-ups per question provide enough depth without causing fatigue. Always enable a setting to skip to the next question once you receive the clarity you need—Specific’s survey builder lets you set this up so the conversation stays smooth.
This makes it a conversational survey: follow-ups make the survey feel like a natural chat, not an interrogation. That’s why conversational surveys get better engagement and more honest responses.
AI survey response analysis: Even with all the unstructured answers, you can easily analyze results using AI. Read how to analyze responses from high school college readiness surveys for actionable patterns—with time-saving automated summaries built right in. No more manual coding or endless spreadsheets.
These automated follow-up questions are still a new concept for many, but they’re a huge leap forward. Go ahead and generate a survey to see first-hand how they work, and how much richer your feedback can be.
How to prompt GPT or ChatGPT for great survey questions
If you want AI to invent questions for your own college readiness survey, you don’t have to start from scratch. Begin with a clear, simple prompt like:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for High School Sophomore Student survey about College Readiness.
But it’s always better if you add more context about who you are, your goals, and what you hope to achieve. For example:
I’m a high school counselor at a diverse public school. I want to identify gaps in college readiness among sophomores and understand their main challenges and concerns. Suggest 10 deep, open-ended questions that encourage honest sharing.
Once you have a list, prompt AI to organize and make sense of it:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Then, focus your survey by expanding specific categories you care most about. For instance:
Generate 10 questions for the “Perceived Barriers” and “Support Resources” categories.
With AI survey generators like Specific’s survey builder, you simply describe your needs in plain language, and the tool takes care of everything—no prompting gymnastics required.
What is a conversational survey?
A conversational survey is an AI-powered, chat-like interview that feels more like a supportive discussion than filling in a form. Rather than presenting a cold sequence of questions, an AI agent reads and reacts to each answer, asks follow-up questions, clarifies ambiguities, and adapts to the respondent’s flow.
This stands in sharp contrast to the traditional, manual survey format (Google Forms, paper surveys, legacy tools) where every possible follow-up has to be predicted and pre-scripted.
Manual Survey Creation | AI Survey Generation |
|---|---|
Write every question, logic, and follow-up yourself | Describe what you want—the AI builds the structure instantly |
Limited probing (few or no follow-ups) | Dynamic, context-driven follow-up questions |
Static forms—low engagement | Conversational, adaptive experience—higher response quality |
Manual analysis and categorization | AI-powered response summaries and insights |
Why use AI for high school sophomore student surveys? It’s simply more effective. AI survey generators create questions tailored for your audience, automatically handle logic, and eliminate hours of setup. You get richer, cleaner data—and much less respondent fatigue.
Want a practical walkthrough? Read our guide on how to create a high school survey with an AI survey generator to see how easy and powerful the process can be. AI survey example flows bring a new level of engagement and insight to even routine feedback tasks—and Specific leads the way in user experience, making the entire process human and enjoyable for both creators and students.
See this college readiness survey example now
Get powerful insights from your high school sophomores in minutes. Specific’s conversational AI survey makes feedback richer, easier, and way more actionable—see the difference for yourself and make your next college readiness survey count.