Colleges Universities
AI recommendation signal analysis across 2,080 domains and 11 buyer personas in Colleges Universities, led by wgu.edu as the most LLM-recommended domain.
Many tables and charts on this page show only the top few results; the full data behind them runs far deeper. The complete report unlocks every row, chart, and download for this industry.
Get the full Colleges Universities report →How to use this page
Compare channels at a glance
See which domains win each discovery channel, and where a brand is strong in one but missing from another. Use the over- and under-performer tables to find channels where competitors hold an edge you can close, or gaps you can take first.
Where the numbers come from
LLM, Fanout, and Organic columns use a rank-weighted score: a domain at position 1 counts for more than one at position 10, summed across every query run. AI Search is a plain citation count because Google's AI Overviews carry no rank data.
What's on this page
Side-by-side rankings for LLM recommendations, web-search fanout, Google's AI Overviews, and organic results, plus an aggregate view and per-channel over/under-performer callouts.
LLM vs Fanout vs AI Search vs Organic
Compare recommendation patterns for Colleges Universities across all personas across four channels side by side: pick a model for LLM and Fanout, toggle Google/Bing for Organic. AI Search has no model choice (it's Google's own AI Overview, a single source, not a multi-model API) and no rank field, so it's shown as a plain citation count rather than a rank-weighted score like the other three.
The two boxes below the four channel charts offer several views of the same data; use the tabs to switch charts. Every view derives from the four charts' data directly, normalized 0-100 within each channel, and updates with the same dropdowns.
Pure LLM: Over- vs. Under-performers
For Colleges Universities, domains ranked by percentile rank within each channel (100 = top domain in that channel, 0 = present but ranked last, a dash = never appeared in that channel's results at all). Over-performers (left) rank far better in Pure LLM than they do on average across Fanout, Google AI Overview, and Organic Google. Under-performers (right) are the mirror case: domains that do well across Fanout, Google AI Overview, and Organic Google but rank poorly, or don't appear at all, in Pure LLM.
| Domain | LLM | Fanout | AI Overview | Organic | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| studyportals.com | 95 | - | - | - | +95 |
| firstgen.naspa.org | 92 | - | - | - | +92 |
| ccsf.edu | 90 | - | - | - | +90 |
| Domain | LLM | Fanout | AI Overview | Organic | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| reddit.com | - | - | 100 | 100 | -67 |
| bestcolleges.com | - | - | 98 | 99 | -66 |
| collegexpress.com | - | - | 95 | 97 | -64 |
Fanout: Over- vs. Under-performers
For Colleges Universities, domains ranked by percentile rank within each channel (100 = top domain in that channel, 0 = present but ranked last, a dash = never appeared in that channel's results at all). Over-performers (left) rank far better in Fanout than they do on average across Pure LLM, Google AI Overview, and Organic Google. Under-performers (right) are the mirror case: domains that do well across Pure LLM, Google AI Overview, and Organic Google but rank poorly, or don't appear at all, in Fanout.
| Domain | LLM | Fanout | AI Overview | Organic | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| mit.edu | 100 | 100 | - | - | +67 |
| imperial.ac.uk | 68 | 88 | - | - | +65 |
| princeton.edu | 98 | 98 | - | - | +65 |
| Domain | LLM | Fanout | AI Overview | Organic | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| topuniversities.com | 83 | - | 88 | 95 | -88 |
| usnews.com | 55 | - | 100 | 100 | -85 |
| niche.com | 52 | - | 99 | 99 | -83 |
Google AI Overview: Over- vs. Under-performers
For Colleges Universities, domains ranked by percentile rank within each channel (100 = top domain in that channel, 0 = present but ranked last, a dash = never appeared in that channel's results at all). Over-performers (left) rank far better in Google AI Overview than they do on average across Pure LLM, Fanout, and Organic Google. Under-performers (right) are the mirror case: domains that do well across Pure LLM, Fanout, and Organic Google but rank poorly, or don't appear at all, in Google AI Overview.
| Domain | LLM | Fanout | AI Overview | Organic | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| uh.edu | 7 | - | 90 | - | +88 |
| ois.usc.edu | - | - | 83 | - | +83 |
| mpowerfinancing.com | - | - | 82 | - | +82 |
| Domain | LLM | Fanout | AI Overview | Organic | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| firstgenforward.org | 61 | 81 | - | 96 | -79 |
| mit.edu | 100 | 100 | - | - | -67 |
| princeton.edu | 98 | 98 | - | - | -65 |
Organic Google: Over- vs. Under-performers
For Colleges Universities, domains ranked by percentile rank within each channel (100 = top domain in that channel, 0 = present but ranked last, a dash = never appeared in that channel's results at all). Over-performers (left) rank far better in Organic Google than they do on average across Pure LLM, Fanout, and Google AI Overview. Under-performers (right) are the mirror case: domains that do well across Pure LLM, Fanout, and Google AI Overview but rank poorly, or don't appear at all, in Organic Google.
| Domain | LLM | Fanout | AI Overview | Organic | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| gradadmissions.stanford.edu | - | - | - | 99 | +99 |
| artandobject.com | - | - | - | 98 | +98 |
| campustours.com | - | - | - | 98 | +98 |
| Domain | LLM | Fanout | AI Overview | Organic | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| risd.edu | 98 | 93 | 74 | - | -88 |
| stanford.edu | 98 | 96 | 53 | - | -82 |
| pratt.edu | 84 | 72 | 90 | - | -82 |