Questions to Ask a Current College Student Before Choosing a College

The best questions for a current college student share one design: they ask about the student’s actual experience, not the school’s reputation. “Is the workload manageable?” invites a shrug; “what does your Tuesday look like, hour by hour?” produces information. Below are the five core questions to ask everystudent — so answers can be compared across conversations — followed by topic lists to pull from based on where your family’s decision actually lives. They work in any setting: a Candid Campus call, a cousin’s friend, or a student flagged down on a visit.

The five core questions — ask these every time

What surprised you most after you enrolled, good and bad?
What kind of student thrives here, and who ends up frustrated?
What turned out to be harder to get than you expected — classes, advising, housing, research spots?
What does an ordinary Tuesday look like for you? An ordinary Saturday?
Knowing what you know now, what would you check before choosing this school?

Asking the same five of every student is what turns individual opinions into a picture: when three students at the same school stumble on the same question, that is a finding.

Academics and workload

How big were your first-year classes, actually — and who taught them, professors or TAs?
Tell me about registration week. Did you get the classes you needed this semester?
What happens when a student falls behind here — what did you or a friend do, and did it work?
Where and when do you study, and is it a fight to find space during finals?
How available are professors outside class — have you actually been to office hours?
What’s a class everyone warns freshmen about, and is the warning fair?

Housing and daily life

Walk me through what happened to you in the housing process after freshman year.
What do people complain about in the dorms — and what turned out to be fine?
How’s the food, honestly, three meals a day into it?
How do you get around — campus, groceries, the airport? Do you need a car?
What does winter (or the heat) actually do to daily life here?
How safe do you feel walking back from the library at midnight?

Where did you actually meet your friends — orientation, dorm, club, class?
What’s the social scene for someone who doesn’t drink or isn’t into Greek life?
What do people do on a Saturday when there’s no game and no party?
How long did it take you to feel like you belonged — and did everyone you know get there?
Who transfers out of here, and why?
What’s something about the culture here that outsiders always get wrong?

Money and practical surprises

What recurring expense surprised you — the thing that isn’t in any cost estimate?
Do students work during the semester, and does it fit around classes?
What do textbooks and course materials actually run you, the way you buy them?
How expensive is it to have a social life here?
What would you tell a family budgeting for freshman year that the brochure won’t?

Note the shape: these ask what the student experienced, not what your kid would pay. Aid packages, scholarships, and billing questions belong with the financial-aid office — a student’s answers tell you which questions to bring there.

Major, advising, and what comes after

How hard is it really to get into (or switch into) the major my kid wants?
What did advising do for you — and what did you have to figure out alone?
Do undergraduates in your department actually get research spots or internships, or just hear about them?
What are seniors in your major doing next year?
If your plans changed after arriving, how did the school handle it?

Questions shaped like your kid

The highest-value questions can’t be listed here, because they are about your kid. Build them with a template: describe the trait, then ask what happens to that student here. “My kid is quiet and needs a routine — who like that have you known here, and how did it go?” “My daughter wants D3 soccer plus engineering — does that combination survive freshman year at your school?” A student can’t evaluate your kid, but they have watched dozens of freshmen sort themselves into thriving and struggling, and pattern-matching against that sample is exactly what you want.

What not to ask a student

Skip anything an office owns: your aid award, degree requirements, transfer credit, visas, accommodations, safety statistics. Students answer these confidently and wrongly. And skip questions that just relocate a brochure — “is it a good school?” produces the same non-answer in person as in print. If a question could be answered without having attended, save it for sources that didn’t attend. For how to weigh conflicting answers between students, see our guide to talking with current college students.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best questions to ask a current college student?

Start with five you ask every student: what surprised you most after enrolling, who thrives here and who ends up frustrated, what was harder to get than you expected, what an ordinary Tuesday and Saturday look like, and what you would check before choosing this school again. Then go deep on whichever topic your decision actually hangs on.

What should we NOT ask a student?

Anything only an office can settle: your financial-aid award, degree requirements, transfer credit, visas, accommodations, or safety statistics. Students are the best source on lived experience and the worst source on policy. Use their answers to sharpen the questions you take to the offices that own them.

Should my kid or the parent ask the questions?

Both, ideally on the same call. Parents ask the questions teenagers won't — money surprises, safety, support services. Kids ask the ones parents can't — social texture, whether people like them are happy. The answers differ depending on who asks, and you want both versions.

Keep researching: all the ways families research colleges, compared · how to choose between two colleges

Sources and methodology

Product claims about Candid Campus were checked against the current FAQ and Trust & Safety page before publication. The five core questions match our cornerstone guide so families using both can compare answers across conversations.