State of College Search 2025
A four-part report series exploring how prospective students across different audiences, undergraduates, adult learners, graduate students, and generational segments, search for, evaluate, and choose their college in 2025.
Why Download?
The college search journey is no longer linear. With evolving platforms, behaviors, and priorities, this research series provides an in-depth view of how students take their decisions along their college search journey.
Segment Your Strategy with Confidence
Each segment, from undergrads to adult learners follows a different decision path. These reports give you clarity on how to meet them where they search for your programs and your college.
Identify Hidden Opportunities
Discover under-utilized platforms and channels that have emerged as influential in the college search process.
Invest Wisely
Understand where your enrollment marketing budget can make the biggest impact, and stop wasting resources on ineffective channels.
Uncover Platform Preferences by Audience
See which platforms matter most for awareness, research, and decision-making across undergrads, adults, grads, and generational groups.
Key Findings
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87% of students use multiple platforms to search for programs and colleges
On average, 87% of prospective students across all segments (undergraduate, graduate, and adult learners) rely on more than one search platform during their college search, making the Omnichannel SEO the new norm to reach prospective students.
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63% Begin Their Search on Traditional Search Engines
Traditional search engines remain the starting point for 63% of students on average. While it plays a foundational role in the Awareness stage, reliance shifts as students move deeper into shortlist and decision-making stage, requiring institutions to be present beyond Google.
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60% use social media to search for colleges
60% of students use social platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube to search for colleges, especially undergraduates and adult learners. The majority of them (88%) are actively searching for college-related content, signaling that social media is now a search channel, not just a discovery platform.
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21% of prospective students use AI to find college
AI is growing very fast as a search engine with 21% of students on average reporting they used tools like ChatGPT (70%), Copilot (17%) or Gemini (9%) during their college search process. Our research found that AI Search is so influential in this process that 46% of prospects said they considered a college less when they didn't find it in the ai search results
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42% of students search on online forums before shortlisting a college.
42% of students turn to online forums like Reddit (67%), Quora (19%) and Discord (12%) before shortlisting colleges, seeking unfiltered peer insights, personal experiences, and honest perspectives they can’t find on official channels where polished content dominates.
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88% Cross-Check Information Before Making a Decision
Trust is earned through consistency. An average of 87% of students verify details across multiple search platforms, often switching channels due to incomplete or contradictory information. This highlights the importance of aligned messaging and accurate content across all search plarforms.
Choose the Report
Download the one that fits your goals, or collect all four for a complete view of how college search is evolving in 2025.
