For years, higher education leaders have framed the future of college as a choice between two competing models: the traditional residential experience rooted in place, community and identity, or fully online education, often positioned as a concession to scale, access, or cost.

Students are no longer choosing between those two options. They are choosing both and making enrollment decisions accordingly.

New research from Rize Education, The Hybrid College Wins: What Students Are Telling Us That Schools Ignore, captures the voices of more than 1,500 high school and college students. Their message is clear and increasingly difficult to ignore. Students want the connection, belonging and personalized attention that small colleges do best, paired with the flexibility to build education around the realities of modern life.

The false binary holding institutions back

The higher ed industry has spent more than a decade debating whether online learning undermines institutional identity, weakens rigor, or dilutes the campus experience. These debates assume students see flexibility as a replacement for what makes college meaningful.

The data tells a different story.

Among high school students, who represent the next wave of enrollees, 91% say they want at least one online course per semester in college. Nearly three quarters report that online options are important in their college decision and 31% say they would switch from their top-choice college to one that offers online courses. This represents a meaningful enrollment risk for institutions that lack flexibility.

Students are not rejecting residential education. They are rejecting rigidity.

Current undergraduates echo this sentiment. 67% percent want at least one online course each semester and 66% say they want more online courses than their college currently offers. Perhaps most telling, 81% feel confident in their ability to succeed in online courses, directly challenging the assumption that flexibility compromises rigor, learning quality, or academic outcomes.

Why this matters now

The implications are particularly significant for small colleges already navigating enrollment pressure, rising costs and demographic headwinds. In many cases, flexibility is still interpreted as a threat rather than recognized as a strategic advantage and a lever for stability.

That interpretation is proving costly.

Students continue to value the strengths of small colleges, including close faculty relationships, community and individualized support. At the same time, they expect institutions to recognize that today’s students are balancing education with work, family responsibilities and financial constraints. Increasingly, students describe being forced to choose between staying enrolled and maintaining stability in their lives, a choice that institutions ultimately pay for through attrition and lost enrollment.

Institutions that frame this tension as a student commitment problem are missing the signal. The real issue is a delivery model designed for a 20th-century student, one that no longer reflects how students live, work and learn.

Hybrid as a strategy, not a compromise

The colleges best positioned for long-term success are moving beyond modality debates and toward intentionally designed hybrid models. When done well, hybrid education extends access to rigorous, real-world coursework while preserving the community and engagement that cannot be replicated outside the residential experience.

Hybrid models allow institutions to preserve high-touch experiences while reducing friction that leads to stop-outs, transfers and unmet enrollment goals. Flexibility supports persistence. Persistence supports completion. Completion reinforces institutional sustainability. These outcomes are all deeply connected.

Listening to students is no longer optional

The findings in The Hybrid College Wins reveal clear patterns in how students make enrollment decisions, where institutional offerings fall short and why expectations are shifting for the next generation of learners. But beyond the statistics lies a deeper truth.

Students are already voting with their enrollment decisions.

The college of the future is not fully online or fully residential. It is hybrid, student-centered and designed around modern student realities. That future is being shaped right now, whether institutions lead it or react to it.

College leaders, trustees and faculty members should engage with this research not because it validates a single approach, but because it elevates student voices that will determine which institutions adapt and which ones may not have the opportunity to do so.

Download the full report to explore the findings in depth or schedule a conversation with the Rize team to learn how you can enable high-impact hybrid learning experiences on your campus.