The Enrollment Cost of Waiting: What Happens When Colleges Delay Hybrid Decisions
New research shows students are choosing colleges with hybrid programs. Learn how delaying hybrid delivery is costing small colleges enrollment and revenue.
While your institution debates whether to adopt hybrid programs, prospective students are making irreversible enrollment decisions. According to our recent research report, The Hybrid College Wins, the data is unambiguous: one in three high school students will switch their first-choice college to their second choice if it means gaining access to online course options.
This preference is already shaping enrollment outcomes. Survey data suggests prospective students are increasingly prioritizing flexibility and online courses when choosing institutions, and they may be selecting competitors who offer these options rather than waiting for slower-moving institutions to catch up. Each semester of delay compounds enrollment losses across the four-year lifetime value of every student who enrolls elsewhere. For small college leaders, the question is no longer whether hybrid aligns with institutional values, but whether they will lead the shift or follow competitors who have already captured demand.
Direct Enrollment Losses
When comparing the same major across institutions, prospective students evaluate program fit through countless factors, but the ability to offer hybrid modality signals something critical: a commitment to innovation and differentiation. For students on the fence between similar programs, this distinction becomes the deciding factor.
Consider a scenario where a Cybersecurity program admits 100 students with a baseline yield of 12%. By positioning the program with hybrid modality, which signals innovation and meets student expectations for flexibility, yield could increase to 16%. At an average tuition rate of $25,000, those 4 additional students represent $100,000 in new annual revenue from a single program.
Scale that across an institution offering 10 programs with similar enrollment profiles, and hybrid implementation could generate $1 million in additional annual revenue. Over just a few years, delaying hybrid implementation doesn't just cost competitive positioning, it costs millions in revenue that could have funded faculty development, student support services, or further innovation. The full data behind these enrollment shifts is explored in the Hybrid College Wins report.
The Retention Gap You’re Already Experiencing
Beyond prospective students, current undergraduates are revealing an important gap between what they want and what’s available to them. 67% of undergraduate students want at least one online course per semester, yet only 45% of them are actually able to take them. The gap becomes more pronounced among students seeking greater flexibility: 42% want two or more online courses per semester, while only 20% can access that level of online enrollment.
This pattern suggests an opportunity to better serve students who are already on your campus. When a student-athlete needs to balance practice schedules with coursework, when a working student needs asynchronous access to complete assignments around their job, or when a student with family responsibilities needs to reduce their commuting demands, online options can make the difference between persistence and transfer. Addressing this gap could strengthen retention while enhancing the student experience for those managing complex schedules, which would take pressure off of finding new students in such a demanding and challenging environment.
The Competitive Window is Closing
Based on data from the report, an interesting shift emerges in how students evaluate different types of institutions. When asked to rank their preferences, small colleges offering hybrid programs emerge as the top choice, being selected by 60% of high school students. Small colleges without hybrid programs rank lower, losing ground to both large institutions with hybrid programs and peer competitors who have already integrated them.
This suggests that small colleges launching hybrid programs are gaining an enrollment advantage their peer institutions can no longer afford to ignore. As these early adopters build track records and refine their offerings based on student and faculty feedback, they establish positioning that becomes harder to match over time. Each enrollment cycle allows them to strengthen their offerings and demonstrate outcomes, while institutions still in the consideration and planning phases find themselves entering a market where competitors have already established credibility with prospective students.
The Incoming Cohort Won’t Wait
Today’s high school students have fundamentally different expectations of college than current undergraduates. They are the first generation to experience online learning as a normalized part of their education, using digital tools as integrated components of how they learn, collaborate, and seek help. When they encounter challenges, their instinct is to turn to online resources and peer communities, habits that shape how they evaluate academic flexibility.
The research reflects this reality: 81% of high school students believe online courses are as good or better than their in-person instruction. Compared to current undergraduates where only 55% hold the same view, this gap reflects the genuine differences in experience and comfort with digital learning environments. High school students have spent a large portion of their academic careers developing the self direction, time management, and digital literacy skills required to succeed in online formats.
The Expectation Escalator
What makes this particularly important for enrollment strategy is the trajectory. Each incoming class arrives on campus with more online learning experience than the cohort before them. Your 2026 students will expect more flexibility than the 2025 class. Your 2027 admits will expect even more. The students you are recruiting right now are evaluating institutions based on whether hybrid options are available, not when they might be added someday.
Conclusion
The schools that will strengthen their enrollment position are those moving thoughtfully but decisively, recognizing that hybrid delivery isn't a departure from their mission but rather an opportunity to evolve their story from preservation to progress, expanding access to the distinctive education they've always provided while positioning themselves as institutions building the future, not guarding the past.
To see the complete data on how students are evaluating hybrid programs and what this means for your enrollment strategy download The Hybrid College Wins report.
To schedule time with a member of our Academic Partnerships team, click here.
Kevin is passionate about working at Rize because he believes students should not have to choose between a rich residential college experience and earning a degree that equips them with essential career skills. Outside of work, he enjoys golfing, skiing, listening to podcasts while walking around NYC, and spending summers with family and friends in Cape Cod.
The Enrollment Cost of Waiting: What Happens When Colleges Delay Hybrid Decisions
New research shows students are choosing colleges with hybrid programs. Learn how delaying hybrid delivery is costing small colleges enrollment and revenue.
While your institution debates whether to adopt hybrid programs, prospective students are making irreversible enrollment decisions. According to our recent research report, The Hybrid College Wins, the data is unambiguous: one in three high school students will switch their first-choice college to their second choice if it means gaining access to online course options.
This preference is already shaping enrollment outcomes. Survey data suggests prospective students are increasingly prioritizing flexibility and online courses when choosing institutions, and they may be selecting competitors who offer these options rather than waiting for slower-moving institutions to catch up. Each semester of delay compounds enrollment losses across the four-year lifetime value of every student who enrolls elsewhere. For small college leaders, the question is no longer whether hybrid aligns with institutional values, but whether they will lead the shift or follow competitors who have already captured demand.
Direct Enrollment Losses
When comparing the same major across institutions, prospective students evaluate program fit through countless factors, but the ability to offer hybrid modality signals something critical: a commitment to innovation and differentiation. For students on the fence between similar programs, this distinction becomes the deciding factor.
Consider a scenario where a Cybersecurity program admits 100 students with a baseline yield of 12%. By positioning the program with hybrid modality, which signals innovation and meets student expectations for flexibility, yield could increase to 16%. At an average tuition rate of $25,000, those 4 additional students represent $100,000 in new annual revenue from a single program.
Scale that across an institution offering 10 programs with similar enrollment profiles, and hybrid implementation could generate $1 million in additional annual revenue. Over just a few years, delaying hybrid implementation doesn't just cost competitive positioning, it costs millions in revenue that could have funded faculty development, student support services, or further innovation. The full data behind these enrollment shifts is explored in the Hybrid College Wins report.
The Retention Gap You’re Already Experiencing
Beyond prospective students, current undergraduates are revealing an important gap between what they want and what’s available to them. 67% of undergraduate students want at least one online course per semester, yet only 45% of them are actually able to take them. The gap becomes more pronounced among students seeking greater flexibility: 42% want two or more online courses per semester, while only 20% can access that level of online enrollment.
This pattern suggests an opportunity to better serve students who are already on your campus. When a student-athlete needs to balance practice schedules with coursework, when a working student needs asynchronous access to complete assignments around their job, or when a student with family responsibilities needs to reduce their commuting demands, online options can make the difference between persistence and transfer. Addressing this gap could strengthen retention while enhancing the student experience for those managing complex schedules, which would take pressure off of finding new students in such a demanding and challenging environment.
The Competitive Window is Closing
Based on data from the report, an interesting shift emerges in how students evaluate different types of institutions. When asked to rank their preferences, small colleges offering hybrid programs emerge as the top choice, being selected by 60% of high school students. Small colleges without hybrid programs rank lower, losing ground to both large institutions with hybrid programs and peer competitors who have already integrated them.
This suggests that small colleges launching hybrid programs are gaining an enrollment advantage their peer institutions can no longer afford to ignore. As these early adopters build track records and refine their offerings based on student and faculty feedback, they establish positioning that becomes harder to match over time. Each enrollment cycle allows them to strengthen their offerings and demonstrate outcomes, while institutions still in the consideration and planning phases find themselves entering a market where competitors have already established credibility with prospective students.
The Incoming Cohort Won’t Wait
Today’s high school students have fundamentally different expectations of college than current undergraduates. They are the first generation to experience online learning as a normalized part of their education, using digital tools as integrated components of how they learn, collaborate, and seek help. When they encounter challenges, their instinct is to turn to online resources and peer communities, habits that shape how they evaluate academic flexibility.
The research reflects this reality: 81% of high school students believe online courses are as good or better than their in-person instruction. Compared to current undergraduates where only 55% hold the same view, this gap reflects the genuine differences in experience and comfort with digital learning environments. High school students have spent a large portion of their academic careers developing the self direction, time management, and digital literacy skills required to succeed in online formats.
The Expectation Escalator
What makes this particularly important for enrollment strategy is the trajectory. Each incoming class arrives on campus with more online learning experience than the cohort before them. Your 2026 students will expect more flexibility than the 2025 class. Your 2027 admits will expect even more. The students you are recruiting right now are evaluating institutions based on whether hybrid options are available, not when they might be added someday.
Conclusion
The schools that will strengthen their enrollment position are those moving thoughtfully but decisively, recognizing that hybrid delivery isn't a departure from their mission but rather an opportunity to evolve their story from preservation to progress, expanding access to the distinctive education they've always provided while positioning themselves as institutions building the future, not guarding the past.
To see the complete data on how students are evaluating hybrid programs and what this means for your enrollment strategy download The Hybrid College Wins report.
To schedule time with a member of our Academic Partnerships team, click here.
Kevin is passionate about working at Rize because he believes students should not have to choose between a rich residential college experience and earning a degree that equips them with essential career skills. Outside of work, he enjoys golfing, skiing, listening to podcasts while walking around NYC, and spending summers with family and friends in Cape Cod.
