You studied hard, you took your SATs, your guidance counselor made a few uniformed suggestions. Maybe, you bought a book that had a Zagat’s type description of colleges and universities. If you were lucky, your parents knew someone who knew someone at some semi-respectable college or University. You filled out your application, wrote your essay, and waited. That 1970s college selection dance is long gone.Lawyers, health care systems, beer companies, and now America’s colleges and universities are working hard to convince Americans that their brands and the experience consumers have with those brands will make their lives better. The compelling part of the educational marketing drive and college brand building is not that it’s being done (after all, it’s a competitive world out there for future Gen Y alumni dollars, and Gen X offspring tuition payments), but how this message is getting disseminated.It all boils down to billboards and college football. Billboards and football programs have become the real brand drivers upon which many young high school graduates might base their 4-year educational choice. Don’t get me wrong, there are still a select few who will actually research what a college or university might offer them vis-a-vie their academic interests, achievement and performance and select accordingly, But….most won’t.Let’s face it, more people (and potential applicants) have now heard of Appalachia State because of a single football game. Ohio State is one of the most well known state universities thanks to Woody and Tressel (sorry, it’s not SAT scores). Rockne, Bo, Broyles and Dooley have all made big brand names out of land grant universities. So what do you do if you don’t have a football team, a mascot or a “big time” school brand? You put up billboards. You’ve got a blank slate. Your university can be anything it wants to be to a select group of students. The trouble with this path, is that most colleges and universities don’t know the first thing about differentiating themselves. Who are they trying to attract? What attributes to those prospects possess and what messages can they put out there to attract those prospects? Typically, you’ll find billboards with smiling young coeds with an inert, undifferentiated message.So, how do you choose a college and how do you attract the “perfect” student for your institution? My advice is three fold: 1) If you’re looking for a college or University, find the one with the biggest football stadium, one that has a real brand, not a weak billboard brand. 2) If you are a college or University looking to attract students, figure out exactly who you are (more about that another time). You can’t be all things to all students. 3) If #2 doesn’t work, hire a celebrity college football coach start a football team and build a really big stadium. After 125 years or so you’ll have a real honest to goodness branded educational entity.