Higher education is under pressure it has never faced before. Colleges are closing. Others are consolidating. Competition for the right students is fierce. And the long-term financial health of every institution depends on building indelible bonds with alumni who will become future donors. Against this backdrop, the need to tell a clear, compelling story is becoming more urgent.
I understand why institutions of higher education resist being thought of as brands. For institutions that have existed for centuries with a high scholarly purpose and a commitment to something larger than commerce, the word “brand” signals something superficial—a product, not a calling. But semantics aside, what branding brings to the table is exactly what higher education needs right now: a story told with feeling, told consistently, and told in a way that makes the right people feel like they belong. Branding builds belonging. And belonging builds everything else.
Every institution has that story. Call it a brand or not— it can become an invitation so powerful that the people you want will know, in their bones, that they belong.
What I’ve seen from both sides
Over ten years of working with some of the world’s most recognized higher education institutions, I’ve had the unique privilege of sitting at the table with brilliant scholars and seeing firsthand that every institution is not just unique—it has a soul that rankings can never capture. I’ve also watched hundreds of campus tours led by fresh-faced, backward-walking students, each one carrying far more weight than they realize.
I know this because I have a daughter who started her college career at one school and later transferred to another. Which means I went through the entire decision-making process twice (yay me) and got to witness up close the moments where a story either lands or it doesn’t.
The most underrated closer in enrollment
Watching my daughter and her friends navigate campus visits, one thing became clear: the tour guide is one of the most influential forces in the enrollment decision. Not because of what they say, but because of who they are and how they connect. That’s a lot of weight for one person and forty-five minutes.
When I realized that belonging—what I came to call “tribe clarity”—was the missing message in most enrollment marketing, it changed the way I thought about brand building entirely. Websites, social presence, campus visits, and admissions materials all need to answer the same unspoken question every prospective student is asking: “Are my people here?”
Our work for Duke Admissions helped reframe Duke not as a competitor to the Ivies, but as a category entirely its own—a place where you join a tribe of people who achieve together. For Cornell Tech, the story was about engineers who refuse to leave their career track and want to solve problems that haven’t been solved. In both cases, the message wasn’t “we’re excellent.” It was “here’s your tribe.”
Rankings work against you
Rankings and reviews build credibility, but they work against true connection. The labels they generate—Ivies, Little Ivies, Magnolia League, HBCUs, Seven Sisters, state colleges—project a flattened, monolithic view of institutions that are anything but. Labels become barriers. They tell a prospective student where a school sits in a hierarchy, but they say nothing about whether that student will find their people there.
Having now visited four of the Seven Sisters, I can say with certainty that the only thing they share is their history as women’s colleges. Each one has a distinct cultural legacy that lives and breathes in its current student body. They are not interchangeable, and no ranking captures that difference. What students are really searching for is harder to quantify: a sense that they will be understood, challenged, at home, etc.
Spoiler alert! My daughter chose Smith. It wasn’t the programs or the facilities that made the decision. She chose a story she wanted to be part of, and a tribe with a shared ambition. Go Smithies.
What brand actually builds
Enrollment is not driven by rankings. Alumni loyalty is not built by rational proof points. Both are born from a story—clear, powerful, and told holistically across every touchpoint—that gives people a reason to believe and a place to belong.
The institutions that understand this will not just survive the pressures bearing down on higher education. They will build communities that outlast any ranking, any financial cycle, any moment of disruption. That is what a great story does. That is what belonging creates.