# College Pulse — user reviews > 50 indexed App Store user reviews of College Pulse by College Pulse LLC, rated 4.39/5 from 1,445 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/college-pulse/id1279952098/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/college-pulse/id1279952098.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 1,101 · 4★ 129 · 3★ 36 · 2★ 36 · 1★ 143 ## What do users think of College Pulse? Overall sentiment: negative **Pros** - 💡 Interesting and engaging surveys - 🤝 Good community and discussion - 📊 Useful data and insights **Cons** - 🚫 Misleading or removed rewards - 🎲 Poor odds of winning raffles - 🐛 Frequent app crashes and bugs **Commonly reported bugs** - Surveys not recording points properly - Login and account issues - Compatibility problems on newer devices **Most requested features** - Bring back meaningful rewards - Improve transparency around donations - Fix technical issues and stability ## Newest reviews (16 of 50) ### 2/5 — Take too long to remove inappropriate things *2020-07-10, version 1.75* I know there are a lot of things pulse has to watch but saying the N word on here is not okay and i know that comment will be up for a long time i’ve reported it twice i know pulse takes a long time to remove things because it’s happened before and i think that post is still up so that’s why there is a two star rating ### 2/5 — Time waster *2020-04-24, version 1.74* And not in a good way. Like everyone else has said the new reward system is whack. I’d much rather have to save up more points for a guaranteed prize than enter a raffle I’m incredibly unlikely to win or purchase a donation I don’t trust will even go through. It’s something to do if you’re really bored, but don’t waste your time on this app if you actually want anything in return. ### 2/5 — Terrible Prizes *2019-12-14, version 1.67* While the surveys are relatively entertaining, and it’s nice to be able to share my opinions, the prize options are basically non-existent. Originally there were dozens of cool and exciting things to win, but for months now it seems like you can only either donate or enter a raffle with such ridiculously small odds to be not worth it. Very disappointing change. ### 2/5 — Started out good... now it’s scam. *2019-08-13, version 1.56* This was definitely a baited scam, luring in college kids with the idea of worthwhile rewards in exchange for some time answering surveys. The results were often interesting, and the goals kept you going. Then they took away all prizes, leaving only the option to donate to charities. While it’s a nice thought, it definitely took away the incentive of answering questions. No point to having this app anymore. ### 3/5 — Rewards are lame now *2019-07-29, version 1.56* Pulse surveys are still cool and interesting, but the prizes for accumulating points have gone from really great to super lame over the past year. If you like surveys and such you’ll like pulse, but don’t expect to get any good rewards anymore. You can only donate to a few select charities and enter a drawing for a small gift card now. I get that the rewards from before probably weren’t sustainable, but at least give us something. ### 2/5 — A fun app, but where are the rewards? *2019-07-24, version 1.56* I downloaded the app back about a year ago, saving up points for some nice rewards. However, with plenty of points now, there are literally no worthwhile rewards available anymore! Bring back some of the real rewards you once had and maybe people will begin to care again about this app! ### 2/5 — Used to be good until they took off all meaningful rewards. *2019-06-20, version 1.56* I feel so scammed from using this app. Though answering surveys are fun any other app could do the same. This app in the beginning provided lots of rewards and incentives, but now it’s just rewards that don’t provide me joy in answering these survey questions. At least give some more gift card options to places like Target, Wal-Mart etc. Or other rewards that college students want/need. Don’t offer something if you’re never gonna give it out in the first place!! ### 3/5 — Rewards have gone downhill *2019-06-11, version 1.56* They used to have rewards that were good albeit expensive. I saved up my points, and now any good and expensive reward is gone. You used to be able to redeem points for an iPhone or PayPal cash. Now, the greatest thing you can get is a gift card, but that reward has been consistently out of stock. Instead, you can use points to enter a raffle, which for most is a waste of points. You promised big rewards, don’t chicken out now. Bring back better rewards!! ### 2/5 — Not very honest *2019-05-27, version 1.56* Interesting surveys, but the app used to have interesting rewards to keep people taking surveys. The rewards were removed before there was really enough time to accumulate points to get anything, making it seem very sketch and scam-like. I emailed the support staff about it shortly after the prizes were removed, and they replied that they’ll be putting up new stuff soon. That was six months ago. ### 1/5 — They removed the good rewards *2019-05-04, version 1.56* Ill make it short. When the app first started they were offering rewards like an electric bike, iphone X, $2500 and more really awesome things. As soon as people got close to it, they removed all of the rewards and now it just trash. Headphone raffles(with >1% chance of winning) and a bunch of “donations” to charities i never heard of, couples counseling and a cheap pulse tshirt... They absolutely ripped us off our time. Please, DO NOT GET THE APP! ### 2/5 — Rewards Gone *2019-03-20, version 1.55* I, like many others, were really excited by this app at first. The prices were amazing. Even if it would take a year or two to get to an iPhone or electric bike, no biggie. The surveys are fun anyway. Before anyone could get that many points, though, they took the rewards away. Seems fishy to me. It’s still fun, but taking away the “good rewards” like that makes me doubt the company. ### 2/5 — You fooled us *2019-03-10, version 1.54* I was referred to this app by a college buddy about 6 months ago. The goal was to win some amazing headphones, an iphoneX or even the $2500 reward! I’ve never lost my streak and have been consistent with answering the question everyday. I was very close to reaching the amount of points required when suddenly they removed all the cool prizes and replaced them with stupid raffles. No warning. These raffles treat people who’ve been here for 6 months the same as someone who’s been here for 1 day. Then on top of that they reduced the raffle prize money from $100->$20. Your chance of winning is less than 1% unless you waste your points buying a ton of tickets... They lured many in with amazing prizes and then took the prizes away and replaced them with garbage. Bait and switch. The saddest part is I can’t stop because I have so many points accumulated. I hope they bring back the worth while prizes because I refuse to spend them on a raffle gamble. It’s upsetting. It feels like a betrayal. ### 1/5 — One of the worse survey apps I seen *2019-02-19, version 1.51* I remember doing 8 surveys in a row in one sitting and I saw that there were many more to do. However the next day, I checked that I have zero survey left and only the daily surveys pops up. I do not know if there is a glitch but you are preventing someone to use your app frequently because you are limiting people from interacting with the app. Also ever since the rewards have been revamped there are less incentives to even take any more surveys. There are prizes that are out of stock for more than 1 month already. When are they going to ever restock? There is no point in returning into this app because it is going down the drain. ### 2/5 — Took away ALL the meaningful prizes *2019-02-09, version 1.49* I saved points for something like 8-10 months just to have them take away any prizes that were actually worth anything. The app is still fun and I like doing surveys and seeing what people say, but the prizes kind of feel like a lie after they removed everything good. For example, there was a $2500 cash app credit that literally not one person ever made it to before they removed it. They basically put a bunch of nice prizes on there to keep people taking the surveys, then took all those away once they had a nice following that wasn’t going anywhere. Now they just do so-so prizes in a raffle that you have the same chance of winning whether you’ve been engaging with the app for a year or for a day. I know I’m ranting but they’ve really bummed me out lol I truly feel lied to ### 4/5 — Literally the funniest comment threads on the internet *2019-01-31, version 1.48* Yeah the rewards are meh but the surveys/quizzes are good time killers and genuinely the funniest things I’ve ever read come from the comments on the survey questions. There’s a great user community and the app gives fun statistics that occasionally make me laugh. Just avoid the political surveys and you’ll have a good time. ### 3/5 — App crashes *2019-01-03, version 1.44* After a 189 day streak, the app keeps crashing after 5 seconds of it being open. I'm scared my streak is going to go away. This is the only app on my phone experiencing this problem, and I have even turned off and on my phone and the problem persists. I hope this can be fixed by the end of the day! ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — It’s basically a scam *2022-12-20, version 1.75* I used all my points to try to enter a raffle for a gift card, and I actually won! I was supposed to receive a $100 Nintendo gift card. I completed the form to claim the card and didn’t hear back, so I completed the form again just to make sure it went through. I’ve also emailed support several times. And I’ve never heard back from anyone or received my gift card. There are way better survey apps that will actually pay you, don’t waste your time with this one. ### 1/5 — Gone way downhill *2022-06-13, version 1.75* I’ve had so many issues in getting sent surveys and not being able to collect my gift card. I always get errors that my phone number is already used even though I’m logged into my account. Would not use again. It seems that they stopped maintaining this app/service which is a shame because it was nice way to get beer money as a student. ### 1/5 — Pointless Reddit Clone *2022-03-01, version 1.75* Quite possibly the worst survey application I have ever had the dissatisfaction using. Questions are often very loaded, and can never be taken from their original asking perspective, rarely do questions that have been voted on by the community ever get asked, and lastly the whole application just feels like Reddit; full of so called “experts” but with actual people with a university education, who think that makes them entitled to their opinion as accepted fact, cause they got a degree by sucking up to their school system for years on end, only to end up politically radicalized on one end of the spectrum. Disgraceful. ### 1/5 — Great model, terrible management *2021-03-08, version 1.75* I’ve been on pulse for several months, have a current 125 day streak going. I post a question a day or so and they usually get voted into the top 5 to be displayed in a daily survey. My questions are regularly unceremoniously censored out of the surveys because they include topics that the far left-wing moderators want to hide such as: Andrew Cuomo scandals, impeachment articles against President Biden, they add in words to pervert my questions out of the original context such as adding “insurrectionist” or removing the word “unarmed” when referring to Ashli Babbitt’s shooting. You get the idea. I would recommend against supporting an app with this disposition toward discussion for an app that’s entire purpose is to facilitate it. ### 1/5 — Misleading app, worse rewards *2020-04-30, version 1.74* When I first started, the rewards used to have $500-$2000 in cash via cashapp, or a mountain bike, or other decent prizes (albeit they would be high in reward points or whatever) but when people started getting close to actually being able to redeem these, they took these prizes down and replaced them with “sweepstakes”(that I’m sure are rigged so the winner is probably someone on their team and no money and actual prizes are actually given away). The subtlety in taking away these prizes without a warning or notification led me to believe this app is bs and solely just in it for your personal information - which they sell off to make money. The prizes nowadays are (most likely fake) sweepstakes and contributions to charities. The only thing decent about this app is the comments left by other college students but those have gotten stale and repetitive. Overall bad app, I had a feeling that cash prize would be too good to be true. ### 1/5 — Misleading marketing; don’t expect any prizes for your time using this app *2020-03-27, version 1.74* The premise behind pulse was simple. Fill out surveys and receive points for your time; these points could be redeemed for great prizes. Back when I downloaded this app, there were many prizes to choose from such as headphones, subscriptions and an electric bike. But a couple months later, the prizes were no longer restocked. All of the prizes were suddenly scrapped aside from the charitable donation options and occasional raffle where the odds of winning are less than 1% even if you spend all your points. That’s a deceitful bait and switch that’s worthy of this one star review. ### 1/5 — Format is good, rewards are trash *2019-09-24, version 1.61* When I first joined, there were pretty good rewards. You could get gift cards after a decent amount of time, $50 vouchers after 6 or so months, and after 2 years you could have gotten a $2,000 electric bike. Pulse then phased out their rewards until the only rewards left are sweepstakes (so you have less than 1% chance of getting the item you want) and donations (that aren’t credited, so you don’t know if they actually donated. There’s basically no point in taking the surveys. ### 1/5 — Terrible rewards *2019-08-30, version 1.56* When I signed up for this app I saw great rewards redeemable for a pretty high amount of points which provided motivation. To continue using the app and working towards those goals. Since then they have removed all potentially good rewards and replaced them with random drawings with no guarantee of any sort of reward for your participation in this app or a donation to a charity, yet they provide no method of actually confirming that the amount of money was donated to the charity listed. Would not recommend this app since it basically promotes students to give their information away for free. ### 1/5 — Deleting the app *2019-07-26, version 1.56* I understand the value of the surveys and of the ability to communicate with peers through this app but you shouldn’t have lured people with valuable rewards if you weren’t prepared to deliver. You baited people and then removed any incentives for us to keep coming back and contribute our time to your mission. I think if you’d at least communicate with the followers in regards to this issue, many would be much more understanding. Even here in reviews you avoid commenting on any complaints or questions that have to do with the rewards section - no integrity. I kept answering the surveys to keep the streak going, but I don’t believe the points will ever hold any value anymore so I’m getting rid of the app along with more than 20,000 points. ### 1/5 — Stuck on Internet *2019-05-31, version 1.56* Every time I try to log in or sign up, the mobile app takes me to the website when I type in my school email address. Then, when I log in online, it never lets me use the app. It’s very aggravating. I don’t know what it doesn’t let me exit the internet version to use the app. If it would stop automatically taking me there when I type my school email in, then I could stay on the app and have no issues. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Brilliant concept and application *2020-06-06, version 1.74* I find the app engaging and useful. I enjoy learning how my opinions are different or similar to those of others in universities across the nation. Most of the negative comments for this app appear to revolve solely around lack of compensation: I find that the thought-provoking questions you get from completing the surveys is compensation enough. ### 5/5 — Fun and Interesting *2019-01-09, version 1.44* Many college students avoid each other and deep conversations enough that they don’t even know what most of the population of students on their campus are thinking. This app deletes that and replaces it with insight into the minds of others around our age with sometimes fun and/or startling quizzes and surveys. It’s definitely kind of addicting because you just keep wondering how different you are from the rest of your community. But also, you get stuff for doing it which adds a whole other level of interest! I’m glad I got an email about this app. It’s definitely worth it if you’re as curious about other humans as I am. **Developer response:** I'm glad you love Pulse! ### 5/5 — The app keeps crashing *2019-01-07, version 1.44* After the most recent update on December 28th my app will open for a few seconds and crash before I can even open a survey. There is no support website or troubleshooting I can do outside the app. The app support in the Apple Store takes me to a website that just has the button "go to the app" on it. ### 5/5 — Doesn’t Collect Points Properly *2018-11-10, version 1.38* 9 out of 10 times when I come complete a survey, the final screen that pops up and is supposed to have the points earned on it and the button to go to the next survey, is completely blank and doesn’t have any buttons or information. This completely wastes the time put into completing most of the surveys if the app just continually glitches when I finish the surveys. Please fix this. ### 5/5 — Best Survey App Out There!! *2018-10-01, version 1.30* This app is incredible. The surveys are interesting and engaging for college students, not just boring questions business people want to use for marketing. I’ve learned a lot about my peers and other demographics while also earning rewards!! The rewards are amazing and you even have an opportunity to give back to charity. I would highly recommend downloading this app! **Developer response:** Thanks Boomdoom! ### 5/5 — College Pulse *2018-09-15, version 1.27* College Pulse is an amazing app! I highly recommend it to all university students. The surveys are always about interesting topics, and I love how we can see the data and what people think. It also has comments so that allows for some interesting discussions. I haven’t even mentioned the prizes! There are a lot of cool stuff you can get, and Pulse is fairly generous with the amount of points you can get by doing certain surveys and doing it every day. It is really user friendly. ### 5/5 — Necessary app for today’s campus culture *2018-09-13, version 1.27* The idea of incentivizing students to take surveys and reveal the truths of their campuses is brilliant. With social and political tensions rising, much of the present-day conflict is inflated by false assumptions. College Pulse serves an imperative mission of effectively compiling the factual opinions and perspectives that exist on college campuses around the U.S. Wonderful interface, thoughtful questions, and intriguing statistics/conclusions. ### 5/5 — New and creative app *2018-09-12, version 1.27* Pulse is a fun and creative way to collect data about thoughts from college students. Gives great incentives for these students to take surveys, and the students trust the app enough to be open and honest about their opinions and lives. ### 5/5 — I got a gift card *2018-09-11, version 1.27* I feel obliged to write a 5 Star review for any app that gave me a gift card for doing pretty much nothing. I probably would still use it even if there were now rewards. ### 5/5 — Fascinating Results *2018-09-11, version 1.27* When I first downloaded Pulse and started taking surveys, I was shocked at some of the results to questions I thought I knew the answer to. Pulse has provided such a unique way to look at opinions about important topics, from sex and partying, to gun control and abortion. The “breakdown” feature of the app, where you can look at survey results based on gender, year, race, sexual orientation (and more) was the most intriguing. It really got me thinking about how different types of people view different topics, and opened my eyes to the true feelings and thoughts of the people on my campus. I can’t wait to see this app grow! --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-06-10.*