HEDS Pre-Advising Survey
The HEDS Pre-Advising Survey is designed to facilitate meaningful conversations between students and their advisors. The survey invites students to reflect on their short- and long-term goals for both college and life, their reasons for pursuing a degree, their worries, and the experiences that may be hindering their progress. It also asks how confident they are in continuing their education at your institution.
The survey automatically sends student responses to their academic advisor prior to their spring advising meeting. This gives the advisor a chance to review how a student responded to the survey and brainstorm ways to help the student achieve their goals.
You can use this survey to:
- Help advisors move beyond simply scheduling classes to having holistic, meaningful conversations with students.
- Identify problems and help students find solutions at a critical juncture when they are deciding whether to continue college.
- Help students connect their academic choices to their broader sense of purpose.
- Help your students feel heard by your institution.
Survey Background
Like the New Student Survey and Returning Student Survey the HEDS Pre-Advising Survey is based on work we did in our HEDS Student Success Project. We wanted to learn first-hand the ways that students think about their success, so we conducted focus groups at HEDS member institutions around the country. In our conversations, students with different backgrounds and identities across a wide range of institutions talked about a successful life after college including four components: 1) meaningful work, 2) financial stability, 3) positive relationships, and 4) balance.
Students attend college to achieve this successful life, even when they don’t talk about it, and they often leave because they can’t see a path from what they’re doing day-to-day in college to this vision. However, effective academic advising can help students connect their academic choices to this broader sense of purpose, navigate barriers early, and feel that people at their institution see their aspirations beyond completing a major, earning a degree, and landing a job.
Click on the following questions to learn more.
The 2026 HEDS Pre-Advising Survey can be administered for a 3-6 week period between January 12, and May 29, 2026. The last day to register will be March 20, 2026.
The survey is for students who are currently attending your institution and are eligible for fall registration.
Please register at least seven weeks (35 business days) prior to the date on which you plan to begin administering the survey. We will work with you if you cannot register a full seven weeks before, but we cannot ensure that you will get the exact start date you want if you register later.
Immediate Student Results:
- The individual responses of each student is emailed to their advisor immediately after the student submits their survey.
Live updates:
- A link to a Live Summary showing aggregate student responses to the closed-ended questions in the survey. These ongoing updates will give you an early, overall sense of how students are responding. They also allow you to gauge your response rates so you can adjust your communication strategies if necessary.
Unit-record survey data:
- You will receive your institution’s unit-record survey data in both SPSS and Microsoft Excel files within five business days of your survey closing.
YES! Here’s how:
- We insert your institution’s name throughout the survey
- You can customize the survey invitations and reminders
- You can add up to three custom, institution-specific questions at the end of the survey
While you can add three supplemental questions to the end, we do not modify our survey questions or response options. Additionally, the responses to these questions will not be included in the summary sent to advisors, but they will be included in your unit-record data files.
- Survey base cost – $750
- Survey base cost for HEDS members – $0
These prices include up to three supplemental questions. You will find all survey options and fees in the survey information sheet. Please click on the “Survey Options, Policies, and Fees (PDF)” button in the Downloads section of this webpage.
This survey is one of the many surveys and data exchanges focused on student success that are free as part of HEDS membership. To learn more about becoming a HEDS member, please visit our Join HEDS page.
If you have any questions, please email us at preadvisingsurvey@hedsconsortium.org, and we will get back to you right away.
Downloads