Community College Enrollment Is Rising, But Applicants are Still Hard to Win

Community college enrollment rose 3.0% in fall 2025, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, while private 4-year institutions saw declines (-2.0%). Students are looking at rising costs, flexibility, time to completion, and community colleges are built around those needs.

Undergraduate certificate and associate degree programs also grew faster than bachelor’s programs, and community colleges now enroll 752,000 students in undergraduate certificate programs, up 28.3% since fall 2021.

But students still need to see the value before they choose schools. A program page can explain the requirements, cost, and timeline. Photos and videos posted online help students understand what the school feels like, who they will learn from, and what they will actually do there.

Students want to see what campus life looks like

90% of first college contact happens digitally, and 56% of students say social media matters most at first consideration.

Students don’t judge a school by its website or main social accounts; they look at Instagram, TikTok, student reviews, Reddit threads, peer posts, and alumni posts before they decide.

A program page can explain cost, credits, deadlines, and outcomes. But students also want to picture themselves there. That only comes from seeing other students share real moments: orientation, campus tours, first-day photos, and student events.

That’s why community colleges need a way to make their best photos and videos easier to share.

Campus content doesn’t reach the people who need it

A photographer may shoot hundreds or thousands of photos from one event. The main account posts a few. The rest go into a shared drive, folder, or inbox. After that, someone has to remember the content exists, know where to find it, and ask the marketing team to send it over.

The main college account matters, but it’s not the only voice students trust. A current student, instructor, alumni account, department, or local partner may make the school feel more real to a prospective student than an official post.

Most community colleges already have all the photos and videos they need, but people can’t share content they don’t have.

How PhotoShelter helps schools put their content to work

PhotoShelter helps about 600 colleges and universities solve two basic problems: make content easier to find, and make it easier for the right people to use.

When photos and videos are uploaded, teams can organize them by event, subject, person, location, approval status, and usage rights. And AI Visual Search is there to help even if an asset wasn’t tagged the way someone later searches for it.

As Elizabeth Field, Staff Photographer-Videographer at Community College of Philadelphia, put it: “There was no way I was ever going to have the time to keyword every single thing somebody might type in. I also can’t read people’s minds, and I don’t necessarily know what the graphic designers might search for.”

Community College of Philadelphia uses PhotoShelter to manage more than 70,000 assets, support about 200 users, and automate more than 400 visual asset requests per month. Instead of sending people back through old folders, emails, or one-off requests, the school has one place where approved content can be found and used.

Their content doesn’t just sit in storage. It can move to the departments, designers, partners, students, faculty, and alumni who can help more people see what the school has to offer.

Teams can send one piece of content or a batch of content to the people they want posting. They can include suggested captions, scheduled dates, internal notes, and photographer or brand credits, so the person receiving it has the context they need to share it correctly.

That gives schools more than a place to store photos and videos. It gives them a system for finding the right content, and helping real people share the moments that make the school worth choosing.

More students are looking, give them a reason to choose you

More students are looking at community colleges right now, so this is the moment for each school to make a stronger case for itself.

Students need more than costs, credits, and deadlines. They want to see what daily life looks like on campus, what events feel like, and whether they can picture themselves there.

If that story is hard to find, the attention goes to another school that made the choice easier.

About PhotoShelter

Founded in 2005, PhotoShelter is a leading digital asset management (DAM) platform for marketers and creatives. Our AI-driven solution simplifies content collection, organization, and distribution. Trusted by global brands like the NFL, MLB, Purdue University, and Wendy’s, we securely manage over 6.7+ billion assets and support nearly 100 million annual downloads.