Students Don't Trust AI, Want ROI And Are Quietly Turning LinkedIn Into The New Campus Tour

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For years, higher education marketing leaned on a familiar formula: glossy campus photos, rankings, heritage and the occasional student smiling while holding a coffee cup and a textbook.

The 2026 State of Student Recruitment report from Keystone Education Group suggests that playbook is aging about as gracefully as a Facebook poke. Today’s prospective students are behaving less like starry-eyed applicants and more like skeptical consumers comparing investment opportunities.