The Hybrid College Wins: What Students Are Telling Us That Schools Ignore
New research that should fundamentally change how higher education leaders think about the future of their institutions.
Today, we’re releasing new research that should fundamentally change how higher education leaders think about the future of their institutions. The Hybrid College Wins: What Students Are Telling Us That Schools Ignore represents the voices of over 1,500 high school and college students, and their message is clear.
For years, the conversation about online learning has been framed as a binary choice: traditional residential experiences versus fully online education. We’ve watched institutions debate over whether the inclusion of online programs compromises their identity, dilutes their brand, and whether students really want what they say they want.
The students have spoken and the answer isn’t either/or. It’s both.
What we discovered goes far beyond modality preferences. Students want personalized attention and community that small colleges do best, combined with the flexibility to build education around their actual lives.
In many cases, students describe choosing between staying enrolled and maintaining work, family, or financial stability. It’s a tradeoff they increasingly refuse to make. They’re not rejecting what makes college meaningful; they’re asking institutions to remove the unnecessary barriers that force them to choose.
Too often, institutions interpret flexibility as a threat to rigor or community, rather than as a way to extend both to students whose lives no longer fit a 20th-century model.
The implications are profound, particularly for small private colleges. The institutions that will thrive are the ones willing to meet students where they are, not by lowering standards, but by redesigning delivery around modern student realities.
This aligns perfectly with Rize’s mission: creating pathways to high-value, meaningful careers for all students, while building a stronger, more sustainable model for higher education. We believe every student deserves access to transformative education, and every college deserves a fighting chance at financial independence and sustainability. The data now confirms what we’ve long believed - these goals aren’t in conflict, they are intrinsically connected.
The report reveals specific patterns in how students make enrollment decisions, what gaps exist between what they want and what they’re getting, and why the next generation of college students will have fundamentally different expectations than those enrolled today. But beyond the statistics lies a deeper truth: students are ready for a new model of higher education and the question is whether institutions are ready to build it.
I encourage every college leader, trustee, and faculty member to read this report through. Not because it validates any particular approach, but because it gives a voice to students whose choices will determine which institutions adapt and which ones won’t have the chance.
The college of the future isn’t fully online or fully residential - it’s hybrid. And it’s being shaped right now by the students who are voting with their enrollment decisions.
Kevin co-founded Rize Education in 2019. After working on Wall Street for The Blackstone Group, Kevin moved to rural Michigan, along with Rize’s other co-founders, to learn first hand about the challenges facing higher education at Adrian College. His deep passion for expanding access to education and economic mobility is core to everything we do at Rize.
The Hybrid College Wins: What Students Are Telling Us That Schools Ignore
New research that should fundamentally change how higher education leaders think about the future of their institutions.
Today, we’re releasing new research that should fundamentally change how higher education leaders think about the future of their institutions. The Hybrid College Wins: What Students Are Telling Us That Schools Ignore represents the voices of over 1,500 high school and college students, and their message is clear.
For years, the conversation about online learning has been framed as a binary choice: traditional residential experiences versus fully online education. We’ve watched institutions debate over whether the inclusion of online programs compromises their identity, dilutes their brand, and whether students really want what they say they want.
The students have spoken and the answer isn’t either/or. It’s both.
What we discovered goes far beyond modality preferences. Students want personalized attention and community that small colleges do best, combined with the flexibility to build education around their actual lives.
In many cases, students describe choosing between staying enrolled and maintaining work, family, or financial stability. It’s a tradeoff they increasingly refuse to make. They’re not rejecting what makes college meaningful; they’re asking institutions to remove the unnecessary barriers that force them to choose.
Too often, institutions interpret flexibility as a threat to rigor or community, rather than as a way to extend both to students whose lives no longer fit a 20th-century model.
The implications are profound, particularly for small private colleges. The institutions that will thrive are the ones willing to meet students where they are, not by lowering standards, but by redesigning delivery around modern student realities.
This aligns perfectly with Rize’s mission: creating pathways to high-value, meaningful careers for all students, while building a stronger, more sustainable model for higher education. We believe every student deserves access to transformative education, and every college deserves a fighting chance at financial independence and sustainability. The data now confirms what we’ve long believed - these goals aren’t in conflict, they are intrinsically connected.
The report reveals specific patterns in how students make enrollment decisions, what gaps exist between what they want and what they’re getting, and why the next generation of college students will have fundamentally different expectations than those enrolled today. But beyond the statistics lies a deeper truth: students are ready for a new model of higher education and the question is whether institutions are ready to build it.
I encourage every college leader, trustee, and faculty member to read this report through. Not because it validates any particular approach, but because it gives a voice to students whose choices will determine which institutions adapt and which ones won’t have the chance.
The college of the future isn’t fully online or fully residential - it’s hybrid. And it’s being shaped right now by the students who are voting with their enrollment decisions.
Kevin co-founded Rize Education in 2019. After working on Wall Street for The Blackstone Group, Kevin moved to rural Michigan, along with Rize’s other co-founders, to learn first hand about the challenges facing higher education at Adrian College. His deep passion for expanding access to education and economic mobility is core to everything we do at Rize.
