Students Believe in the Career Value of College. Are We Designing Product to Match?

The recent Gallup and Lumina study found thatnearly 9 in 10 current college students believe their degree will prepare them for the job they want. At a time when public confidence in higher education has waned, that's a striking signal.

After 20 years of studying colleges and universities, I can't say that I'm surprised. SimpsonScarborough has generally seen that students and families feel good about higher ed, especially their own experiences and schools. What we continue to see isn’t erosion of belief in higher ed — it’s anxiety around what Tim Jones on our team calls “cost and comfort.” Even when value is real, things feel expensive and uncertain.

That tension matters. The public is questioning ROI. Students are still investing with expectation. So the real question becomes:

Are we intentionally designing product experiences that justify that confidence?

A few years ago, when COVID disrupted everything, my daughter—then a high school freshman—had some hesitation as a return to in-person learning started back that fall. "I wish we just didn't have to go in every day," she said. I knew that was a sign of things to come.

Fast forward to today. She’s at a great, career-focused institution (Fashion Institute of Technology), taking a full load of 15 credits. Only two of her classes are in person. The rest are asynchronous. That flexibility allows her to work, complete a career-focused internship, and build a portfolio alongside coursework.

None of her friends are fully in-person either. Hybrid and asynchronous learning aren’t “alternatives” anymore. They’re normalized. For her generation, education isn’t separate from career preparation. It’s integrated with it.

That’s not just a modality shift.

It’s a product shift.

Put all of this together and something becomes clear: Students (and their influencers) aren’t evaluating colleges the way they did 15 years ago. They’re evaluating them the way they evaluate platforms, certifications, and career investments.

They’re asking:

• What will I be able to do?
• What skills will I gain?
• How quickly can I apply this?
• What evidence proves it works?

That’s not a marketing shift. That’s a product shift. And when you look at higher ed through that lens, you start to see four distinct layers where product and brand either align—or don’t.

Product as Positioning

Take Cal Poly SLO and its iconic promise: “Learn by Doing.” When we partnered with Cal Poly on strategy and identity, we leaned into an idea already in their DNA.

It’s a powerful positioning statement. Clear. Action-oriented. Differentiated. But it needed definition followed by a unifying and shared experience. Positioning needed to drive intentionality in mission and business strategy. Because positioning only works when it’s operationalized. If “doing” feels uneven depending on program or access, the promise becomes aspirational rather than experiential.

In today’s environment, that gap shows up faster — and louder. Students aren’t buying taglines. They’re buying lived experience.

Product as Experience Architecture

Some institutions have intentionally engineered career integration into the student experience itself. There's the obvious and legacy institutions that have driven co-op and internships:

• Drexel University – structured co-op programs embedded into the academic calendar

• Northeastern University – multi-term paid co-ops as a defining element of the degree

• University of Cincinnati – birthplace of cooperative education, still deeply integrated

But even across liberal arts colleges and universities, there's a growing movement to embed career skills and outcomes in making the academic product and portfolio more relevant and, thus, marketable. Denison University, ranked 2nd in the country for career services and 4th most innovative among liberal arts colleges, has become known for career exploration, internships, alumni networks, and integrated skill-building.

These aren’t add-ons. They are structural design choices. The product proposition is unmistakable: You will graduate with real experience — not just coursework.

And because it’s structural, the brand promise feels credible.

Product as Product Marketing

We’re also seeing a shift in how degrees are presented. Increasingly, institutions lead with the most practical question: “What can you do with this degree?”

Examples:

• University of North Dakota – Esports degree career paths
• Pace University – Health science careers
• Harvard SEAS – Data science career pathways (even the most elite of institutions aren't scared to make the connection to real outcomes)
• The University of California system goes further by making alumni outcomes transparent through its career pathways data dashboard.

In a market focused on ROI, proof becomes part of the product.

This is product-centric marketing.

Prestige. Amenities. Rankings. Those are signals.

Skills. Roles. Pathways. Those are benefits.

Because students are evaluating education as an investment in capability.

CMO as Product Shaper

And this is where the CMO and the role of marketing communications in informing and shaping the product becomes unavoidable.

If brand perception is now shaped by:

• Career outcomes
• Flexibility
• Experience design
• Transparency

Then marketing cannot sit downstream from those decisions. In most industries, marketing has a seat at the product table because brand strength flows from product value.

Higher ed is reaching that same inflection point.

If students believe their degree will prepare them for meaningful work — and Gallup says they do — then institutions must design intentionally around that expectation.

And CMOs need influence over:

• Program design
• Modality strategy
• Career integration
• Outcome visibility

Because when product and brand align, marketing amplifies momentum. When they don’t, marketing absorbs frustration.

Students are clear about what they’re buying.

The real question is whether institutional leadership — including marketing — is clear about what we're building.