The Pulse of Higher Ed

There’s a moment from my college days I remember more clearly than any midterm I ever took.

I had stepped away from my bachelor’s degree at Penn State because I wanted to live a little. I’d grown up in the same town that I went to college and I just needed an extended reprieve, something dripping with excitement, intrigue, and exercise. That’s how I ended up at the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail, staring at a white blaze and an overstuffed backpack that definitely weighed more than the school bag I’d abandoned.

The trail is a long journey, encompassing roughly 2,200 miles and 14 states. On the trail you meet all sorts of characters from across the globe. Some are seeking adventure, some are running from something, some are there to learn about themselves, and others are just looking to have fun. Regardless of a hiker’s motivations, completing the entirety of the trail in one go – a thru hike – is a daunting task. In fact, roughly only 20%, one out of five, of the individuals that start their journey actually accomplish the goal of hiking from Georgia to Maine (or Maine to Georgia if you’re a rebel).[1]

There isn’t any single reason that individuals have to quit their hikes. Some get injured or have family health issues to deal with. Some run out of motivation. Others run out of money. Sound familiar? Enrolling in (and finishing) a degree is its own long-distance hike. Each year, millions of learners step onto the higher ed trail, and millions quietly step off. The National Student Clearinghouse’s Some College, No Credential report estimates that 37.6 million Americans under the age of 65 have some college credits but no credential.[2] Just like hikers, they still desire to complete their goal but have hurdles that are impeding their ability to do so.

No matter where a student steps onto the enrollment trail, the sun is going to set and they’ll reach for whatever “lights” they trust: Google, YouTube, an AI chatbot, your website. UPCEA’s research with Search Influence shows traditional search still dominates, but AI tools are now a major part of how prospects discover and evaluate programs, surpassing social media in usage for program research. While social media has generated considerable investment from many institutions, AI deserves, at minimum, the same strategic attention institutions have historically given social media.[3]

That means visibility today isn’t just being findable, it’s being recommendable. If your program pages aren’t readable, trustworthy, and structured for both humans and AI, it’s like hiding your trailhead behind an unmarked side road. Students can’t choose what they can’t find. We need to build pages with clear, “chunked” content (headings, bullets, direct language) and reinforce credibility with citations and links, because in an AI-shaped search world, trust is part of the path, not a bonus feature.

Another twist in the trail: a lot of the weight students carry is our fault, not theirs. UPCEA’s new 2025 secret shopper benchmarking study, based on 1,000 inquiries to member institutions, found that 44% of inquiries placed went unanswered by institutions. This percentage is the highest over the last five years that UPCEA has been collecting data, higher than the tail end of the pandemic in 2021 (42%). This is particularly troubling as 84% of learners inquire to 3 institutions or fewer, and 68% enroll at the institution that admits them first.[4] In a time where institutions are scratching and clawing for every enrollment, investing considerable time and resources to obtain that elusive inquiry only to not respond is incredibly damaging. Imagine hiking for days or even weeks, finally reaching a shelter, and finding the door locked and the lights off. That’s the experience higher education is currently offering.

While there are plenty of trails that can get a learner to your program, some are a well-marked path and others feel like bushwhacking at dusk. In UPCEA’s 2025 secret shopper work, inquiry routes that started with an RFI form outperformed email in the way that matters most: 63% of RFI inquiries received a response, compared to 50% of email inquiries. The follow-through gap is even more glaring, with 78% of RFIs receiving promotional content versus just 2% of the 500 email inquiries. Even when a learner does get an email response, it’s too often a quick flashlight flicker because the inquiry never makes it into a system that keeps their path visible and their feet moving forward. That’s why this datapoint is so damaging; it doesn’t just frustrate students, it wastes already-limited staff capacity and resources. Processes are paramount. Every inquiry, even the ones that arrive via email, needs to be routed into a CRM so engagement doesn’t end after one touchpoint and learners don’t get lost between the blazes.

When we do this right, we are not just being more responsive. Routing every inquiry into a CRM is first mile work. It is basic trail maintenance that keeps people moving instead of second guessing the route. If we want to respect staff capacity and still respect the learner, we need systems that do the remembering for us. Otherwise, choice turns into churn. And right now learners have plenty of choices. Our map tells us that we have a crowded market that is rewarding students with more choice but stretching institutional talent and budgets thin. Our compass points to today’s learners being pragmatic—seeking relevance, flexibility, and proof of outcomes. To meet those needs, we must pack wisely. The most effective enrollment funnels carry less weight with prompt and personal responses and simplified paths that turn curiosity into commitment. That long trek of sustainable growth depends on shared structures, actionable data, and responsible AI that amplify human support rather than replace it. Every institution can move forward by focusing on clarity, speed, and trust in the first mile of the student journey.

I eventually found my way back to the classroom, but I never forgot what it felt like to stand on that trail with more questions than answers and more weight than I could comfortably carry. Our learners feel that way, too. If we want them not just to start the journey but to actually reach their version of a credential Katahdin, we have to carry our own weight and improve our enrollment funnels.

 

Bruce Etter serves as the Senior Director of Research and Consulting at UPCEA, where he leads the development and management of research initiatives for UPCEA’s Research and Consulting division and its clients.

 

[1] https://thetrek.co/appalachian-trail/why-75-of-at-thru-hikers-wont-make-it-spoits-complicated/

[2] https://nscresearchcenter.org/some-college-no-credential/

[3] 2025 AI Search In Higher Education Research Study – Search Influence

[4] https://insights.educationdynamics.com/modern-learner-report-2025.html?utm_campaign=modern-learner-2025&utm_source=eddy+news&utm_medium=release&utm_term=report&utm_content=download&_gl=1*16nru0o*_gcl_au*MTY5ODUwMDU1NS4xNzU2ODM4NzQ3*_ga*NjA0MTY5NTY1LjE3NDU4NDQ3MTI.*_ga_GCCXZQJL6Z*czE3NTgyMTk0OTckbzIwJGcwJHQxNzU4MjE5NDk3JGo2MCRsMCRoMA..