Every college wants to stand out — but what institutions say, and what students see don’t always match. Eduventures research shows that even small misalignments between institutional identity and student perception can make or break enrollment decisions.
Rather than asking how your institution defines itself, flip the question: How do students define you? Understanding where perceptions align — and where they don’t — will sharpen your brand story and your enrollment strategy.
Start by asking this question: What Brand Neighborhood does my institution live in?
The Eduventures Brand Neighborhoods
So, what is a Brand Neighborhood? Take public institutions as an example. According to the Eduventures Prospective Student Brand Research™, the top three brand constructs that traditional-aged undergraduates associate with their top-choice publics schools are friendly/community (57%), affordable/value (47%), and high quality (37%). These constructs capture how students broadly view public institutions, but they don’t provide enough insight into how schools differentiate in their minds.
Our analysis shows that public institutions cluster into distinct “Brand Neighborhoods” — groups defined by shared brand constructs and quality perceptions. Each neighborhood attracts and serves different kinds of students.
We identified nine distinct Brand Neighborhoods and subdivisions among public institutions in our data, defined by how students associate key brand constructs and perceive institutional quality across major enrollment drivers. In other words, these are the “areas” where public institutions live — according to students.
Figure 1 highlights four top-level Brand Neighborhoods for public institutions: Accessible, Affordable, Spirit, and Academic. Three of these (Accessible, Affordable, and Spirit) include additional subdivisions for a grand total of nine.
Figure 1.
In Figure 1, the top-level Brand Neighborhoods represent the primary characteristics students associate with an institution, while the subdivisions below reflect secondary traits — together forming a composite image of how each school is perceived. For example, almost a fifth (19%) of public schools are in the Spirit neighborhood. This neighborhood has two subdivisions: one where the schools are known for their Community, like University of California, Santa Cruz, and one where the schools are seen as more Academic, like Auburn University.
Figure 2 illustrates the brand constructs (i.e., friendly/community or affordable/value) and quality perceptions (i.e., academic strength or physical environment) of institutions within each neighborhood, alongside key institutional demographics drawn from federally-reported data.
Public Institution Brand Neighborhoods
Figure 2.
Sources: The Eduventures Prospective Student Brand Research and National Center for Education Statistics
Figure 2 shows that the four neighborhoods vary in perceptions of quality, affordability, school spirit, and the types of students each school is likely to serve. Here are the key descriptors for each neighborhood:
- Accessible –These schools are not only affordable, but they also serve the highest degree of underserved students (i.e., Rutgers University, Newark)
- Affordable– Affordability is prominent, but these institutions serve fewer underserved students in comparison to the previous neighborhood (i.e., Towson University)
- Spirit – These are the big research 1 universities with prominent athletics (i.e., Auburn University)
- Academic – These are highly ranked national public universities (i.e., The University of Texas Austin)
The Academic schools stand alone, but three of the top-level neighborhoods—Accessible, Affordable, and Spirit—have subdivisions. Figure 3 shows how Spirit schools break into two further subdivisions: Spirit-Community and Spirit-Academic.
Spirit School Neighborhood Subdivisions
Figure 3.
Sources: The Eduventures Prospective Student Brand Research and National Center for Education Statistics
The subdivisions shown in Figure 3 represent the secondary characteristics that define separate institutions within their overarching neighborhoods. The two subdivisions of Spirit schools break down like this:
- More community-oriented - affordable institutions that reach more Pell eligible students (i.e., University of Central Florida)
- More academic-oriented - serving fewer Pell eligible students (i.e., University of South Carolina)
Where Do You Live?
It’s important to not only know which neighborhood students think you live in, but also where your competition fits. For example, Figure 4 shows the top-level neighborhoods for 12 public universities in Virginia.
Brand Neighborhoods of Virginia Public Universities
Figure 4.
Imagine that you are James Madison University residing in the “Spirit School” neighborhood as shown in Figure 4. Are you in the neighborhood that your campus believes it is in? Do you want to be in a different neighborhood? How do you compete with schools that are in disparate neighborhoods?
These are all legitimate questions to ask. But we believe the most important question you can ask is, “How will you “own” your Brand Neighborhood?” The first three questions are important to help you understand your competitive context, but aligning to and delivering on student perceptions of your university is the central task.
The Bottom Line
“Owning” your Brand Neighborhood means two things:
- Understand where students actually place you (not where you wish you were).
- Outperform the other institutions in your neighborhood. You don't need to become University of Virginia if you're in the Affordable neighborhood — you just need to be the best Affordable option for your students.
Institutions that will thrive in a shrinking market won’t be those trying to reinvent themselves, but those doubling down on what they already do best within their neighborhoods. The key question isn't whether your institution is in the “right” neighborhood — it's whether you can win market share by delivering better outcomes than your neighborhood competitors.
Success means retaining and graduating more students and delivering on career outcomes for those who are drawn to your neighborhood.
The Eduventures What Is Your Brand Neighborhood? report published last week provides further details on top-level neighborhoods and subdivisions for both public and private institutions. The report also shows how student majors and Student Mindsets™ differ in each of these neighborhoods and their subdivisions, giving you deeper insight into the students you serve and for which you compete.
