Questions to Ask a College Student
For parents, relatives and mentors talking with a first-year college student or someone further along, and for applicants and families who want a straight account from current students at their prospective schools. 59 questions to ask college students about their experience: the semester's classes and professors, daily life, money and plans, two groups for a campus visit, on academics and on what student life is really like, and a last group for an interview, when a class assignment or an article sends you to ask people about college.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Classes
What are you taking this semester, and which one is eating all your time?
Why ask it
"How are classes?" reliably produces "fine". Naming the course that is taking the time gets you the real state of the term, and it lets a student complain about workload without having to admit to struggling.
Which class did you expect to dislike and don't?
Why ask it
This gets past the rehearsed answer about a favorite subject. Surprises are where students find out what actually interests them, and it is often a requirement they resented signing up for in August.
Where do you actually do your work?
Why ask it
Location predicts whether work is happening better than any question about hours. A student who says their bed, and laughs, has just told you what the problem is without being asked about grades.
Have you talked to any of your professors outside of class yet?
Why ask it
Office hours are the highest-value habit available to an undergraduate and the one first-years most avoid, usually because they assume it is for people in trouble. Asking makes it ordinary without turning it into instruction.
When is the worst week of your semester?
Why ask it
Terms are not evenly loaded, and there is almost always one week when everything lands at once. Knowing the date means you can offer something useful then instead of during a quiet stretch.
Who's the best professor you've had, and what makes them good?
Why ask it
Students describe good teaching in concrete terms: returns work fast, answers email, will sit with you. Those specifics tell a prospective student more about a department than any ranking does.
How do you pick your classes each term?
Why ask it
Listen for whether an adviser is involved at all. Students who build schedules purely from friends' recommendations and rate-my-professor pages often discover a missing requirement in their final year.
If you were starting over, would you pick the same major?
Why ask it
A yes with reasons is reassuring; a yes with no reasons often means they have not questioned an early decision. Hesitation here is worth sitting with rather than talking them out of.
Daily life
What time do you get up on a normal weekday?
Why ask it
Sleep is the first thing to slip and the last thing anyone volunteers. Wake-up time is a neutral question that surfaces a four-in-the-morning schedule you would not otherwise hear about.
Who do you eat with?
Why ask it
Meals are the plainest available measure of whether someone has found people. The occasional meal alone is nothing. Every meal alone in a room is the earliest visible sign of a student pulling away.
Who was the first person you got to know there, and are you still close?
Why ask it
Early friendships usually come from proximity rather than choice. Whether they lasted tells you if the social picture has settled or is still being sorted out, which matters more in the second year than the first.
Is there a club or group you signed up for and actually went back to?
Why ask it
Activity fairs produce a dozen sign-ups and very few second meetings. For a first-year, the one group they returned to is often where their people end up coming from.
What is the food and laundry situation really like?
Why ask it
These are safe things to complain about, which is exactly why students use them to open a conversation about being worn down by the place. Take the complaint at face value first and see where it leads.
What's your housing situation like this year?
Why ask it
Housing drives more of a student's daily mood than coursework does. A shrug here often covers a bad roommate match or a long commute they have decided not to complain about.
What has living with roommates taught you?
Why ask it
Most students arrive having never negotiated shared space. The answer usually reveals whether they can raise a problem directly or whether they wait, resent, and move out.
What do you do when you have nothing scheduled?
Why ask it
Empty hours are where a college term is won or lost. What someone does with a free Tuesday afternoon describes their semester more accurately than a transcript does.
What do you miss about home that you didn't expect to miss?
Why ask it
It is easier to admit missing a dog or a car than to admit being lonely, and the small answer usually opens the larger one. Relatives get a warmer conversation from this than from asking directly whether they are homesick.
How often are you getting home, and is that more or less than you planned?
Why ask it
A first-year who leaves every weekend is away for the hours when a dorm floor gets to know itself, and one who never leaves may be avoiding the word homesick. The gap between the plan and the practice is the part to listen to.
Is there anyone on campus you would go to if something went wrong?
Why ask it
Most campuses have an advisor, a resident advisor, a chaplain, a counsellor, or a coach who fills this role. Whether your student can name one person is far more informative than any reassurance they offer. A blank pause is worth returning to later.
What's been the most surprising thing about college so far?
Why ask it
A wide opener that lets them pick their own topic, which tells you what is on their mind. First-years usually name the amount of unstructured time; juniors more often name how small the school started to feel.
What do you wish someone had told you before your first year?
Why ask it
This produces the most quotable advice in the set, and it is hindsight rather than theory. Common answers involve office hours, dropping a class without shame, and how little anyone notices what you wear.
What is something about your life there that I would never guess?
Why ask it
This gives permission to describe something ordinary: a routine, a friend's habits, the walk to a nine o'clock class. Those details are how you learn what their life is like rather than how it is being presented.
Money and plans
What are you spending money on that you did not expect?
Why ask it
The surprises are usually small and repeated: laundry, delivery, transport home, course materials, going out on a Thursday. Naming them keeps the budget conversation practical rather than moral.
Are you working, and how many hours?
Why ask it
The hours matter more than the job. A modest number alongside classes is usually fine and beyond that it starts quietly costing grades and sleep, and students rarely mention that they picked up extra shifts to cover something.
Is there anything you need that you have been putting off asking for?
Why ask it
Students postpone asking for money, a doctor's appointment, a tutor, or a difficult email to a professor. Naming the category invites the request without requiring them to describe it as a problem first.
Have you changed your mind about anything since you got there?
Why ask it
Students often change major, plans, or friends without telling anyone, expecting a poor reaction. Asking openly, and taking the answer calmly, decides whether you hear about the next change or learn of it afterwards.
What are you doing this summer, and how far along is that?
Why ask it
Summer deadlines fall much earlier than students expect. Asking how far along it is, rather than what the plan is, exposes the gap between an intention and an application nobody ever sent.
What is going to be different about next year?
Why ask it
Leases, roommates, course choices, and study abroad decisions all sit in the near future. Asking about next year produces a practical planning conversation and often surfaces worries they have not yet called worries.
When you picture yourself after this, what does an ordinary day look like?
Why ask it
Asking about the shape of a day rather than a job title lets someone answer honestly when they have no title in mind. Where they are, what hours they keep, and who else is in the room are usually truer than any career label.
What are you hoping is different about you by graduation?
Why ask it
Forward-looking and low-pressure, since it asks about the person rather than the resume. Vague answers are fine here; the point is whether they have thought about it at all.
What do you not want to be asked about when you come home?
Why ask it
Visits are full of questions students dread, usually about grades, plans, or a relationship. Asking which ones, and then actually leaving them alone, buys more honest conversation than any question on this list.
Campus visit: academics
How much work is it, really, in a normal week?
Why ask it
Push for hours, and for how their weekends go during term. A vague "it's manageable" is worth less than one student telling you they spend Sunday in the library and still feel behind.
When people here get stressed, what is it usually about?
Why ask it
The answer separates grade pressure from money pressure from loneliness, and those are very different places to spend four years. Asking about people in general, not about the student in front of you, makes an honest answer easier to give.
Do students help each other out, or is it more every person for themselves?
Why ask it
Get concrete: do people share notes, form study groups, warn each other off a badly run course? Grading curves and pre-professional tracks can make a campus quietly competitive in ways no tour mentions.
Can you actually get into the classes you need?
Why ask it
Registration is where the course catalog meets reality. Ask how many times they have been shut out of a required class, and whether anyone they know is staying an extra semester because of it, since an extra semester is a bill.
Who teaches your classes: professors, or graduate students?
Why ask it
Ask about first-year courses in particular, since that is where big lectures and teaching-assistant sections tend to cluster. Students will also say frankly when the graduate instructor was the better teacher, so neither answer is a verdict on its own.
If you emailed a professor tonight, when would you hear back?
Why ask it
It turns a vague question about accessibility into one a student can answer from last week. A reply in hours and a reply in days describe two different departments, so put this to someone in the major you are considering.
How easy is it to switch majors or add something on?
Why ask it
Plenty of students change direction, so the exits matter as much as the entrance. Ask whether some programs need a separate application, whether prerequisites are sequenced so tightly that switching costs a year, and who advises you through it.
Campus visit: student life
What is the best thing about being here that I would not get from the website?
Why ask it
The second half is what makes this work. It rules out the rehearsed line about small class sizes and pushes toward something specific: a particular professor, a lab that takes first-years, a bus route that makes the city usable.
How did you find your friends here?
Why ask it
The answer shows what the social machinery really is: a dorm floor, a team, a religious group, a first-year seminar, or plain luck. If everyone names the same channel and it is not one you would join, take note.
What do people do on a Friday night if they are not into parties?
Why ask it
A campus with a real answer names things: film screenings, a climbing wall, a diner people walk to, a practice room open late. Hesitation before answering is itself the answer, and it matters most if you do not drink.
Does campus empty out on weekends?
Why ask it
Commuters going home and a big fraternity and sorority scene both hollow out a Saturday, in different ways. Ask what the dining hall and the library are like on a Sunday morning, because you would spend a lot of Sundays there.
Do different groups actually mix, or do people mostly stay in their own circles?
Why ask it
Enrollment figures say nothing about who sits together at lunch. Ask about their own friend group as a check on the general answer, and put the same question to an international or out-of-state student if you meet one.
If you needed to see someone at the counseling center, how long is the wait?
Why ask it
Ask for the wait in weeks and whether there is a limit on sessions, since neither tends to appear in the brochure and both differ from school to school. How easily students talk about it also tells you how the campus treats the subject.
Where would you not walk alone at night?
Why ask it
A general safety question gets a reassuring answer. A student who names a particular street, parking garage or unlit stretch has given you something you can go and look at before dark, and a sense of how the campus meets its surroundings.
What are people you know who graduated last year doing now?
Why ask it
These are outcomes from someone with no stake in the placement figures. Ask how those graduates found their jobs, whether through campus recruiting, an alum, or entirely on their own, because that shows what the network is worth in practice.
What's your school worst at?
Why ask it
Students are blunt about advising, dining hours, financial aid offices, and mental health wait times. Sort what you hear into fixable annoyances, like parking, and structural problems, like advisers nobody can reach. When several students name the same thing, believe them over the tour.
If you were choosing again, would you come here?
Why ask it
The pause before the answer carries more than the answer. A yes with a caveat attached is the most trustworthy response you will get, while a fast, bright yes with nothing behind it is usually the tour-guide reflex.
What should I be asking that I have not?
Why ask it
This hands over the agenda, and students often use it to raise what they were too polite to volunteer: a department in turmoil, a housing lottery, a policy change coming next year. Ask it of everyone you talk to.
For an interview
Before we start, how should I describe you: your year, your major and where you are from?
Why ask it
A write-up for a class or a school paper needs these basics, and asking first saves a follow-up message later. It also settles whether they want a full name used or only a first name.
How did you end up at this college, and what else was on your list?
Why ask it
The schools they turned down, or that turned them down, make the story specific. Most students can name one deciding factor, and it is frequently cost, distance or a single visit, not the reason printed in the brochure.
What did you do in high school that turned out to matter most once you got there?
Why ask it
For a reader still in high school this is the most useful answer in the interview. Expect habits more than courses: writing to a deadline, asking a teacher for help, running a week without being reminded.
Which part of applying took the longest, and what would you do sooner?
Why ask it
Naming the slowest part gets a concrete account of essays, recommendation letters or aid forms, where a broad question about applying gets a sigh. The second half turns their hindsight into a timeline someone else can use.
How is a college class different from a class in high school?
Why ask it
Students tend to mention how few graded assignments there are, how much of the reading happens outside the room, and that nobody checks whether you came. Ask them to pick one course as the example so you get a scene to write and not a summary.
When did you decide on your major, and what nearly got chosen instead?
Why ask it
The runner-up is the interesting half. It shows whether the decision came from a class they loved, a parent's advice or a job they have in mind, and a profile needs that reason more than it needs the name of the major.
Can you walk me through yesterday, from waking up to going to bed?
Why ask it
Yesterday is a real day, and "a typical day" is an idealized one. The gaps between classes, the meals, and the hour the work finally got done are the details that make a written piece ring true.
What was the hardest thing to get used to in your first semester?
Why ask it
Past tense makes this easy to answer honestly, because the difficulty is over. Follow with what fixed it: the fix is usually a person or a routine, and that is what a reader can borrow.
How are you paying for college, in whatever detail you are comfortable sharing?
Why ask it
Money is the subject interviewers skip and readers most want covered. Leaving the level of detail to them keeps it polite. Aid, loans and work rules differ by school and by country, so record their case as one example and ask how it works where they study.
What would you tell a high school student to start doing this year?
Why ask it
Advice with a deadline attached is more usable than advice in general. If the answer comes out vague, ask what they would redo about their own last year before college.
Talking to a College Student, at Home or on a Visit
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
How to Keep the Conversation Open
Pick One Topic Per Call
A call that covers grades, money, health, and summer plans in twelve minutes reads as an inspection, and the next one gets dodged. Choose the topic that matters this week and leave the rest for the following call.
Mind the Calendar
Midterms, finals, and the week major papers are due are the worst possible times for a searching conversation. Ask early in the term what those dates are, then aim for the gaps between them.
Ask About People Before Work
Questions about friends, meals, and roommates get answered honestly. Questions about grades get managed. Start with the first kind, and the second usually comes up on its own.
Resist Fixing It Immediately
Most students stop reporting problems once the report triggers a plan, a phone call to the school, or a lecture. Sitting with a complaint for a minute, and asking what they want to do about it, keeps you informed next month.
What to Ask First-Year College Students
In the first term nearly everything is new, so questions about the major, the summer and the career land on someone still finding the laundry room. Ask about people and routine: who they eat with, how often they get home, whether a professor knows their name yet. The plans can wait for the second semester.
What to Listen For
- Eating alone in their room rather than anywhere on campus
- A schedule that has drifted so late that morning classes are effectively optional
- No named person they would go to if something went wrong
- Work hours creeping up without any explanation of what the money is for
- Vagueness about a specific course, in place of the usual general complaining
- Plans for next summer or next year that have not moved since the last conversation
Common Pitfalls
Leading with Grades
Opening on marks teaches a student to give you the least informative answer they can. If grades are the actual worry, ask which course is hardest and how they know where they stand in it.
Comparing Them to Anyone
A sibling, a cousin, or your own college years all land the same way, and they reliably end the conversation. Whatever the comparison is meant to encourage, it will be heard as a verdict.
Asking What the Plan Is, Repeatedly
Many students do not have one, and the question functions as pressure rather than interest. Ask what they are considering and what they have ruled out, which leaves not knowing available as an answer.
Turning Money into a Referendum
If spending needs to change, discuss the specific amounts and where they go. Framing it as gratitude or discipline stops you finding out about the costs you did not know about.
On a Campus Visit: Who to Ask, and Where
- Your tour guide is a trained ambassador who was selected and coached. Useful for logistics, weak for candor. Talk to them, then talk to someone else.
- Try dining halls in the late morning, library lobbies, and the line at a campus coffee shop. Open with who you are and one question, and most students will give you five honest minutes.
- Find the department you might study in and ask a student there. Quality varies a great deal between departments in the same school, and the general campus mood tells you nothing about it.
- Ask two or three students the same question and compare. One person's opinion is a mood; three people naming the same problem is a fact about the place.
- If you cannot visit, official student panels are still worth attending. Treat unmoderated forums with caution: they collect the very happy and the very unhappy and almost nobody in between.
How to Ask So You Get Real Answers
Ask About Other Students, Not Just Them
"When people here get stressed, what is it about?" is easier to answer honestly than "are you stressed?" People will describe their own experience once it is framed as a general observation, and they will do it in more detail.
Keep Your Own Opinion Out of the Question
"This campus seems amazing, right?" gets agreement from almost anyone. Ask flat, neutral questions and let the enthusiasm, or its absence, come from them.
Follow Up with "Can You Give Me an Example?"
This one sentence does more than any clever question. "Professors are really accessible" turns into a story about a professor who read a draft over a weekend, or it turns into a shrug. Either way you learn something.
Ask for the Last Time, Not the Usual Case
"When did you last go to office hours?" and "how long did registration take you this term?" produce facts you can check. General questions produce a description of the school's self-image.
In an Interview, Say What It Is For
If you are interviewing a college student for a class, a school paper or a research project, open with who will read it and how long it will take. Ask before recording, ask how they want to be named, and offer to send the quotes you plan to use. Students talk more freely once they know where their words are going.
Pitfalls on a Visit
Judging the Place by the Weather and the Tour
Visits are scheduled for good days and routed past the newest buildings. Try to see an ordinary classroom building, an ordinary dorm and the dining hall you would actually eat in, then decide.
Only Asking Students Who Are Like You
If you talk only to people in your intended major from a similar background, you will hear one version of the campus. Ask someone who commutes, someone from far away, someone in an entirely different department.
Treating One Bad Answer as Decisive
Every school has an unhappy sophomore having a hard week. Weigh patterns, not single conversations, and give more weight to complaints about systems than to complaints about individual people.
Forgetting to Write It Down
After three campuses the answers blur together. Take five minutes in the parking lot to note what you heard, in their words, and one line on how the place felt.
Extra Questions by Type of School
Large University
Ask how big their smallest class has been, how they get an advisor's attention, and how a first-year gets into research. The risk is not the size, it is having no one who notices if you disappear.
Small College
Ask what happens when only one professor teaches the subject you care about, and what people do when a friendship or relationship goes wrong in a community of two thousand. Ask how often a course runs only every other year.
Urban Campus
Ask where campus stops and the city starts, what the commute is like if you live off campus after first year, and whether internships during term can really be reached by transit.
Rural Campus
Ask whether you need a car, how you get to an airport, and what people do in February. Also ask where you go for medical care that the campus health service cannot handle.
If You Are the Parent
Let your student ask most of the questions; students answer teenagers more freely than they answer adults. Save your own for the practical ground: costs beyond tuition, health services, safety, and what happens when a student starts struggling.