Most admissions websites are built for one student: the traditional freshman with college-educated parents who knows what a FAFSA is. After auditing more than 100 admissions sites, a clear pattern emerged: five student populations that are either missing entirely or handled as an afterthought, from first-gen students getting retention content instead of recruitment help to a homeschool pipeline that has doubled with almost no institutional response.

I audited nearly 40 college and university Parent & Family pages. What I found was consistent across almost all of them: a page built to check a box, not to speak to a parent.

The org chart is never just the org chart. Higher ed institutions can say brand is strategic and marketing is essential, but without clear authority, access, and decision rights, the strategy is mostly decorative. This second post in the series looks at centralization, decentralization, hybrid models, and why goodwill alone cannot carry the weight of brand governance.

Higher ed loves a blurry line. And one of the blurriest is the line between brand and marketing. The two functions are deeply connected, but they do different jobs. Brand is how an institution becomes known for something. Marketing is how that meaning gets moved into the market. When the distinction gets fuzzy, voice fragments, campaigns drift, and the institution becomes harder to understand. This first post in the series makes the case for clarity before activation.

Students rule out colleges based on sticker price alone. Here’s how to make your Tuition & Fees page an affordability tool—not just a price

What if college apps adjusted in real time to help students finish with confidence? A more intuitive, student-friendly process is possible.

Students abandon clunky inquiry forms. Here’s how to fix yours fast and capture more leads—without a major overhaul.

A college degree is an investment, but its value is not always clear to students. How can colleges make its return on investment more tangib

Higher education websites are often dense and impersonal. What if these websites could work more like Amazon?

Your homepage isn’t your only first impression. Students land on major pages first—are yours built to convert?