Audience: Undergraduate

The world of higher education enrollment is changing before our eyes. Gone are the days of predictable application cycles and one-size-fits-all recruitment strategies. At Carnegie, we’re in the trenches with you, seeing first-hand the challenges institutions face. Here are nine key trends that will reshape Student Search in the coming years—and how we can navigate them together.

Political dynamics aren’t just shaping national headlines—they’re shaping higher education decisions. In this first release of Carnegie’s Summer Research Series, we explore how politics is influencing student and parent perceptions of colleges and universities.

Staying apprised of the latest changes in politics in the US this year basically constitutes a full-time job. Results from Carnegie’s May Deadline Survey suggest that prospective students, and even their parents, often have too many other topics on their minds to keep up with politics. When asked about the impact of politics on college choice, responses to our May 2025 survey were almost identical to those from a survey held shortly after the 2024 election.

This spring, Meta officially rolled out advertising capabilities on Threads, its new text-based social platform built by the Instagram team. While the rollout is still limited, this marks a major milestone for brands looking to connect with Gen Z audiences in fresh, authentic ways. For colleges and universities, it’s also a signal: now is the time to start thinking seriously about using Threads to support your social media marketing strategy.

Higher education is navigating a complex landscape marked by shrinking budgets, intensified enrollment pressures, and a shifting political climate. Institutions are tasked with achieving more with fewer resources, making strategic Student Search more crucial than ever. It’s time to rethink traditional approaches and embrace adaptable, resource-efficient strategies.

Understanding how seasonality shapes the undergraduate enrollment funnel is critical to building effective enrollment marketing strategies in higher education. Each year, student behavior follows a predictable cycle aligned with academic calendars and application deadlines, driving shifts in search volume, intent, and conversion actions across the funnel. From early exploration in the fall to decision-making in the spring, these fluctuations signal when prospective students are researching, applying, or confirming their enrollment.

Not all enrollment marketing and student success partners are created equal. And in today’s higher education landscape, where expectations are high and the stakes even higher, choosing the right partner is one of the most important decisions an institution can make.

In today’s competitive higher education landscape, digital marketers are under more pressure than ever to prove ROI, track student journeys across multiple touchpoints, and make data-informed decisions. As browser privacy settings evolve and third-party cookies face increasing restrictions across various platforms, traditional tracking methods—like browser-based pixels—are becoming less reliable.

That’s where LinkedIn’s Conversions API (CAPI) comes in. For colleges and universities running LinkedIn ad campaigns, CAPI offers a powerful, privacy-conscious digital marketing strategy that bridges the data gap and boosts attribution accuracy.

Recently, Carnegie hosted a webinar with leaders of national higher education associations for a candid discussion about the demands of the moment and how leaders can navigate the uncertainty while fulfilling the mission of higher education. We opened the conversation to our attendees to ask questions directly to our hosts and panelists. Our panelists couldn’t get to all of the amazing, thoughtful questions posed during the event. We’ve compiled some of them here with answers from our hosts, Shankar Prasad and Emma Jones, as well as some of our favorite quotes from our panelists.

Last month, Carnegie’s Slate experts teamed up with Technolutions to host a Stump the Slate Squad webinar. With hundreds of institutions tuning in, the questions poured in—everything from quirky form logic to complex reporting challenges and student record edge cases.