Describe your students and research or counseling goal. Makeform builds an online survey about postsecondary plans, college preferences, decision factors, and support needs.
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Sample prompts for the builder
Choose a brief, adapt it to your school or study, and send it to the builder.
Audience
Grade 12 students preparing for life after graduation
Format
Anonymous planning survey with conditional follow-ups
Prompt size
262 chars
Example survey structure
Anonymous planning survey with conditional follow-ups
What are you considering after graduation?
Which college types are you considering?
How far from home would you prefer to study?
Where are you in the application process?
What support would help you next?
Suggested routing tags
Needs advising
Campus exploration
Application support
Ask about barriers separately from preferences; what students want and what feels possible may differ.
Step 1
Ask
plans, preferences, barriers, and support needs
Step 2
Branch
show relevant follow-ups for each pathway
Step 3
Compare
review patterns by grade or planning stage
Step 4
Support
turn response themes into counseling resources
Better planning data
Connect student intentions to preferences, obstacles, confidence, and requested counselor support.
Show institution preferences to college-bound students and exploration questions to undecided students.
Compare affordability, programs, location, campus life, and support on consistent scales.
Let students explain one priority or barrier your answer list missed.
Choose your survey goal
Choose the use case closest to the decision you need to make.
Map intended pathways, application status, decision timing, and immediate advising needs before graduation.
Learn which college types, majors, settings, and factors juniors want to explore.
Prioritize workshops, application labs, family events, visits, or career exploration.
Study college preferences with neutral wording and consistent scales.
Survey workflow
Define one purpose, test each student path, and collect only needed information.
Name the counseling or research goal, grade levels, and topics to compare.
Use local pathways and resources, with not sure and prefer not to answer where useful.
Preview college-bound, undecided, and other routes for relevance.
Compare grade or planning groups, then match common needs to counseling activities.
Survey design choices
Match the survey depth to the planning or research decision.
Field guide
Use a comparable core plus branches that fit each student's plan.
Current direction
Allow overlapping routes, undecided, and another path without forcing a college intention.
College preferences
Ask college-bound students about institution type and setting without treating preferences as commitments.
Decision factors
Use one balanced scale, plus a short ranking for important tradeoffs.
Planning progress
Ask planning stages plainly and show application questions only when relevant.
Barriers and privacy
Make barriers optional, explain use, and avoid identifiers when follow-up is unnecessary.
Support requests
Ask which real services students would use and allow one optional comment.
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Open toolFAQ
Answers for designing and using a student college survey.
Ask about postsecondary intentions, institution types, fields, location, decision factors, progress, barriers, and support. Use a shared core plus relevant branches.
Include only questions tied to your decision: a short core, one relevant branch, and an optional comment. Preview on a phone and remove repetition. Separate quick polls from detailed research surveys.
Use anonymous responses for candid group patterns when individual follow-up is unnecessary. Avoid direct identifiers. Offer a separate, optional contact path for students requesting help.
Include work, trade study, service, gap year, military, undecided, and another path alongside college. Show college questions only when relevant, but ask everyone about confidence and support.
Use multiple choice for one plan, checkboxes for overlapping interests, balanced scales for factors, and ranking for a short priority list. Include not sure and not applicable.
Yes, as a questionnaire starting point. Specify the population, question, constructs, scales, branching, and identifier policy. Review wording and procedures against institutional requirements before surveying minors.
Compare pathway and confidence patterns, then connect barriers and requests to application labs, financial aid information, visits, family sessions, or advising. Treat early preferences as changeable.
Yes. Makeform is unlimited free for generating, editing, publishing, and collecting responses. The paid tier removes the Makeform badge.
Turn student preferences into a clearer counseling plan.
