Audience: Undergraduate

On December 7, 2025, the U.S. Education Department announced a new initiative aimed at helping students make informed choices in higher education and maximize their potential for success. Starting now, students applying for federal financial aid may receive a FAFSA “lower earnings” warning for certain colleges and universities that fall below state or national salary benchmarks for high school graduates. Access to this crucial data point is designed to help students evaluate the return on their educational investment.

Credo, Powered by Carnegie is pleased to announce that Elon University President Connie Ledoux Book has been selected as the recipient of the 2026 Courageous Leadership Award. The annual award honors a college or university president whose strategic vision, student focus, and collaborative spirit have moved their institution forward in meaningful ways.

Student success is still too often defined by retention alone, but families are asking a different question: will the investment pay off? As costs rise and confidence in higher education shifts, students want a clear return that connects their academic experience to meaningful careers. Institutions that link persistence, career readiness, and long-term economic mobility will stand out. The campuses that communicate this value with clarity and conviction will earn trust in an increasingly competitive landscape.

In higher education, organic social media often serves as the front door of your institution’s brand. It’s the place where prospective and current students, parents, alumni, and donors first get a sense of your institution’s culture, values, and voice. 

Standing out in today’s saturated social media feeds requires more than just frequent posting. It’s about understanding what makes social media “social” and using it to connect with your audience in engaging ways. 

When prospective students research academic programs, they aren’t casually browsing — they’re making one of the most important decisions of their lives that will shape their future career. They want detailed, reliable information that helps them compare options, weigh outcomes, and feel confident before applying. In fact, for many students, their college choice entirely depends on finding the right academic program. But when they land on a webpage that’s vague, disjointed, or incomplete, they’re more likely to click away, taking their application with them.

Social media is constantly evolving, but one platform has maintained consistent relevance with younger audiences: Snapchat. For higher ed marketers, Snapchat offers unique opportunities for colleges and universities to connect with students authentically and effectively.

In higher education marketing, it’s all about meeting prospective students where they are and guiding them every step of the way toward enrollment. That’s the heart of full-funnel marketing. It’s not just a buzzword; it’s a strategic way to nurture prospects from first touchpoint to final decision.

In 2023, the University of Maine’s flagship campus faced a series of challenges—among them narrowing student pipelines in primary recruitment markets in Maine and New England more broadly, a fiercely competitive higher education environment, and a new statewide free community college initiative with the promise to build transfer momentum but the risk of immediate impact to first year enrollment.

In the fourth and final release of Carnegie’s Summer Research Series, we examine how students and parents connect with authentic stories in the college search process—and why personality-driven communication is emerging as a powerful tool for engagement.

As summer comes to an end and new students head to campus, thinking about another enrollment cycle of prospects and parents could seem daunting. Or at least like starting over. At Carnegie, we hope the insights from the Summer Research Series can help to reduce some of those anxieties, and as we wrap up our series, we want to arm you with one final piece to the puzzle: personality in higher education storytelling.