Healthy Minds Survey

The Healthy Minds Survey asks all Harvard degree-seeking students to confidentially share information about knowledge and attitudes toward mental health. Students are also asked to provide feedback on services utilized and resources available on campus.  

• The Healthy Minds Survey builds upon Harvard’s history of prioritizing student mental health. This survey asks questions about mental health challenges and prevalence, knowledge and attitudes about mental health, and service utilization.   
• Over the past several years, Harvard has made significant strides in expanding services, increasing awareness of resources available, and fostering a climate that encourages open discussion about mental health issues. This survey, in part, is designed to evaluate the effectiveness of those efforts and to identify new needs that may have arisen. 
• The Healthy Minds Survey follows the American College Health Association’s National College Health Assessment completed in Spring 2024. Both surveys align with recommendations from the 2020 Report of the Task Force on Managing Student Mental Health, and include the opportunity to compare Harvard data to national benchmarks. 
• The Healthy Minds Survey was launched in 2007 by the University of Michigan. Since then, more than 850,000 students at 600 colleges and universities have participated, including Stanford University, MIT, Tufts University, and Boston University. Harvard is one of several participating in the Healthy Minds Survey this spring.

• This survey will provide the data we need to identify existing issues and develop solutions to address them. The information gathered will be used to shape policies, support services, and interventions related to student mental health. 
• Specifically, the information students contribute to the Health Minds Survey will help the University to gauge the current state of student mental health, evaluate our existing programs, assess the need for additional programs and services, and better understand how students think about mental health. 
• To ensure confidentiality and protect response information, the Healthy Minds Network at the University of Michigan will administer this survey and will not collect or share any identifiable data with Harvard, any of the other participating Universities, or any other party provided access to the anonymized data. 

• The Healthy Minds Survey is a joint initiative of the Office of Student Affairs and Harvard University Health Services and follows the American College Health Association’s National College Health Assessment completed in Spring 2024. Both surveys align with recommendations from the 2020 Report of the Task Force on Managing Student Mental Health, and include the opportunity to compare Harvard data to national benchmarks. 
• The Healthy Minds Survey is part of a plan to ask students every three years about their mental health and experiences with the University’s mental health resources.  

We need student feedback to ensure the mental health services and resources offered by the University meet the needs of our students. This survey is an opportunity for students to share their thoughts and feedback with University leadership and Schools about how Harvard can continue to support and prioritize student mental health. 

For students who are considering completing the Survey, it may be helpful to consider the following:

• A chance to voice your opinion and provide your feedback – confidentially  
• Receive a $15 MasterCard or other brand name gift card for completing the Survey 
• You can tell us what’s working and what’s not  
• Your voice will help us improve mental health resources for you and your peers

Students will also be entered into the Healthy Minds national-level sweepstakes for the following incentives: one of four $250 prizes and one of ten $100 prizes in the form of Amazon gift cards. Winners will be selected and contacted during the summer following the Survey. 

No. You do not have to participate in this survey, and if you do participate, you may skip any question you are not comfortable answering. You may also exit the Survey at any time or pause taking the Survey and, using your personal survey link, pick it up at a later time. 

The Survey will be open for three weeks, April 2–23. 

Yes. Survey responses will be completely confidential. The Survey is conducted by the Healthy Minds Network at the University of Michigan, who is contractually committed to anonymizing all responses and will not generate or maintain any internal connection logs with IP addresses. No information linking your identity to your survey responses will be available to Harvard University. The University of Michigan severs all identifying information from response data upon completion and/or closing of the Survey. If you start the Survey but do not complete it, the connection with your name, email, and IP address will be permanently severed at the end of the Survey period. 

This survey should take approximately 25-30 minutes to complete, but it could take more or less time. If you do not complete the Survey in one sitting, you will be able to save your progress and return to it at another time using your personal survey link. 

Each degree-seeking student will be sent a unique link to their Harvard email account by the Healthy Minds Survey research team on behalf of Harvard.  The invitations and reminders will come from a University of Michigan (@umich.edu) domain: HealthyMindsSurvey_Harvard@umich.edu. The Survey is only accessible by this unique link, and participants will not be asked for their HarvardKey. 

Yes. All students at Harvard who complete the Survey will receive a MasterCard or other brand name $15 gift card. Students will also be entered into the Healthy Minds national-level sweepstakes for the following incentives: one of four $250 prizes and one of ten $100 prizes in the form of Amazon gift cards. Winners will be selected and contacted during the summer following the Survey. 

Please note: While the Survey response tool will know if you finished the Survey (in order to issue the incentive), your responses will not be personally identifiable or linked to you in any way. 

Yes, the Survey is compatible with all browsers and handheld devices. You do not have to complete the Survey from a Harvard computer or Harvard network. 

The Healthy Minds Survey is a joint initiative of the Office of Student Affairs and Harvard University Health Services and follows the American College Health Association’s National College Health Assessment completed in Spring 2024. Both surveys align with recommendations from the 2020 Report of the Task Force on Managing Student Mental Health, including to “assemble and collect data on a regular basis on student mental health.” The Healthy Minds Survey is part of a plan to ask students every three years about their mental health and experiences with the University’s mental health resources. You might find the Gazette article about the launch of the mental health initiatives helpful.

The Healthy Minds Survey is focused specifically on understanding student mental health. The data gathered will give us greater opportunity to understand the mental health issues facing our students as well as our students’ experiences interacting with the various support mechanisms available at the University.  

While there are some similarities between the National College Health Assessment (NCHA) administered last spring and Healthy Minds, the Healthy Minds Survey dives more deeply into questions about the student mental health experience. Because NCHA is a general health survey, it also asks about a wide variety of health issues, including preventive medical care, chronic medical conditions, and acute illness like strep, mono, etc.  

The project team will review aggregated findings this summer. We expect to share University-level results with the campus community this fall, along with national reference data from the Healthy Minds Network. 

Harvard will share aggregated results in a way that protects the privacy of students and will use the results to better understand students’ experiences related to mental health and utilization of mental health resources. The results will also provide information about relevant resources needed to support students as well as inform mental health practices and policies. 

Respondents can reply to the email invitation or email the research team directly at hms-coordination@umich.edu.   

Respondents can reply to the email invitation to report or inquire about technical difficulties or email the research team directly at hms-coordination@umich.edu. They can also contact Harvard’s Office of Institutional Research & Analytics (OIRA) at oira@harvard.edu. 

For any further questions, respondents can send an email to Marshall Page, Harvard University’s associate director for student engagement, at marshall_page@harvard.edu.