The Differentiation Crisis in Higher Education
Why Every College Website Looks the Same and What That Says About Their Brand
As a branding strategist and as a mom with one kid in college and another in high school, I’ve spent the last few years living at the intersection of two realities: professional brand clarity and personal college decision-making.
From both angles, the same issue keeps showing up. Colleges do a surprisingly poor job of defining what makes them different.
Even the most prestigious schools rely on reputation instead of clarity. When my kids research schools, everything blends together. The language. The design. The promises. The priorities. It feels like there’s one national template for “how to sound like a college” and everyone is following it.
So when a student gets into multiple schools, the decision feels more like guesswork than guidance. And that is a brand problem.
What I Found When I Looked Closer
A few years ago, I worked on differentiators and big picture messaging for a university client. As part of the project, I audited dozens of university websites across the country.
Here is what I kept seeing.
1. Every college website looks exactly the same
Most sites use the same structure:
A hero photo of students on a quad.
Four or five rotating headlines.
A panel of university news articles.
This may seem harmless, but it distracts from the primary question every prospective student and parent is trying to answer:
Why should I choose you over another school?
Press releases do not help prospective students understand whether they belong. The website should tell a story about identity, not announcements.
2. There are almost no real differentiators
Once you strip away the prestige, the language across schools becomes interchangeable.
Small classes.
World class faculty.
Research excellence.
Diversity and inclusion.
Career readiness.
These might be strengths, but they are not differentiators. A differentiator is not something everyone else can also say. It is the distinctive philosophy, experience, or environment that sets one school apart from another.
Why Stanford instead of Brown? Why Brown instead of Duke? Weather alone is not a positioning strategy.
If the institution cannot articulate its uniqueness, how can a seventeen-year-old be expected to?
3. Colleges are not speaking to the right audience
Most university websites appear to be written for internal stakeholders. They highlight accomplishments that matter to faculty, donors, and administrators.
But the key audience at the most important moment in the funnel is not being addressed.
The applicants.
The admitted students.
The parents evaluating one of the biggest investments of their lives.
This is the moment where differentiation matters most. It should be the moment that tells a student: “Here is what makes us special and here is why you might thrive here.”
Yet very few institutions take this moment seriously.
What Colleges Can Learn from Strong Brands
In the world of branding, clarity is a strategic advantage. When you know who you are and what sets you apart, you attract people who align with your mission and values. That alignment creates loyalty, advocacy, and a sense of belonging.
Universities can learn from brands that get differentiation right. They can:
Define the deeper reason their approach to education matters.
Identify and speak directly to the students who are the best fit.
Humanize their messaging and explain their philosophy, not their features.
Build their marketing and communications from the inside out so the lived experience matches the promise.
And here is where Part 2 of this series begins. Because once a school understands the importance of differentiation, the next step is learning how to create it. What if a college could intentionally build traditions, programs, communities, or experiences that make them truly stand out? That is the work higher education needs to invest in next. The link to Part 2 will live here.
Final Thought
If every college sounds the same, the ones that dare to define themselves will be remembered. Because in a sea of sameness, differentiation is the new prestige.