Also, do you want to share some names of schools and what makes them “Dream Schools?”
@Zrt42, yes, for 90% of students that’s the case (I think the other 10% end up transferring). Which means there isn’t one school for you; there are many.
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Good question, @AustenNut. The results are reported by year the schools participated. In talking to schools about their results, the changes tend happen over time – so there aren’t as many variations between one year and the next iteration of the survey but definitely over the course of a five year or 10 year period, for example, when programs that a college might have put in place actually start to show results. For the results from NSSE in my book, we looked at composite findings over a 5 year period.
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Is there a chance for well rounded kids get into top 20 colleges? Straight A, 15 hour per week Sport since 8 years old, high school swim team, 1550 SAT score, assistant coaching. No spike
I have a daughter who is considering majoring in fine art/studio art at a well rounded established University. We are new to the idea of a portfolio and do not know where to start - what can you recommend?
Yes, we started with 4-year schools (the focus of the book) with at least 1,000 students (a cutoff that experts say is needed to be financially sustainable uness you have lots of money). Then we looked at those schools that accepted at least 20-25% of students. And most schools on the list accept way many more.
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After that we weighed a variety of factors:
- A solid earnings-to-net-price ratio. We estimated how much a degree over four years will cost you in the long run, given the net price of the school and how much graduates earn, on average, ten years after enrolling.
• Outcomes that “punch above the school’s weight.” Student outcomes vary widely across colleges. Often, they’re tied more to the human beings who enrolled than to any other factor. So a useful way to compare two critical outcomes—graduation rates and earnings after graduation—is to control for student body characteristics, such as family income, academic preparation in high school, demographics, and local cost of living. - Student engagement. Based on results from the National Survey of Student Engagement.
- Job prospects for graduates. To ensure that I was including colleges that produce talent for a broad range of employers, I consulted LinkedIn data to see where schools’ graduates land, as well as Lightcast and Handshake.
• Delivery of value to undergraduates. We analyzed data on institutional characteristics and practices. Together we identified which factors were most—and least—significant in driving outcomes.
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@qqmmlin001, yes, it happens every year. Might not be your first choice and it might not happen immediately. I was struck by how much movement there was from EA to regular decision through the wait list this past year. So if you’re willing to wait until May/June, it could happen.
In your latest book, it seemed you excluded schools that are under 1000 students. My kid is interested almost exclusively in small schools with the largest under 3,000 and the smallest at about 900, Agnes Scott, which she loves. I’m curious why you excluded schools under 1,000 students and if there is something about schools that size that I should be concerned about that I’m not thinking of. We know the size has some limitations on choice and social circle, but even at that size it will be over twice almost thrice the size of her high school. Would love to hear the things you’d think about for a small school, including any financial concerns regarding the school’s fiscal health you’d have?
So I separated them into three groupings – essentially small, medium and large (a bit more nuanced than that, but I hope you’ll pick up the book). So let me share some names from each.
How about Bentley University, which is overshadowed by Babson as a great business school. Graduates at Bentley earn nearly $112,000 annually ten years after enrollment, placing the university among the region’s highest-earning bachelor’s institutions.
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Another one: DePauw U. Thanks to a $200 million gift in 2024, DePauw is restructuring into three distinct schools. About 92% of students complete at least one internship, often with major Indiana employers like Eli Lilly and Salesforce.
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A few others:
- Stevens Institute of Technology, which has direct pathways to law and medicine.
- Binghamton U., with a strong net-price to earnings ratio.
- Florida International University, which delivers an exceptional return on investment.
What is considered “lots of money?” Is it an endowment/student ratio or some other factor? And at what point should parents start to be concerned, especially if a small school has had a stable enrollment (i.e. is consistently around the same size year after year for an extended period of time)?
@ECCA2026, I love Agnes Scott and wanted to include them, but I was pretty strict on the 1,000 number (and I think the year I looked at the data they fell right below). This is not true for every school under 1,000 – and there are lots of them – but in working on two big projects over the years on the financial sustainability of colleges and talking to lawyers/financial experts/bond rating agencies, who get deep in the weeds, it’s tough to operate a college these days on such a small base unless you have a significant % of your budget coming from the endowment. And many of the closures and mergers we have seen so far are among that group of schools. So I think if you want that, buyer beware. Do you homework as I lay out in Chapter 9.
@tossthrower, I’d argue that UW Madison and Ohio State are already prestigious. Both are members of the American Association of Universities, which is a pretty exclusive club of top research universities.
I also don’t know if you’re talking about in-state or out-of-state applicants, which is an important distinction here. But regardless, as I write in Dream School, the reason why certain public universities, in particular the South, have become more popular is because many of them have grown to keep up with demand for publics everywhere. Not all public u’s have expanded and I don’t imagine given demographics many will.
So if the balance gets thrown off in the coming years – with way many more students applying to public universities because of football, Greek life, perceived lower cost, etc. it will be harder because the reason we have a robust private sector is to take enrollment pressures off the publics.
@tossthrower, good question. The point about high school was in a section about whether it’s worth going to an easier high school in order to improve you college app. In that context, it’s not because you’ll be better prepared for college. In reality, most of us don’t get to choose our high schools like we do colleges.
Thanks for the response. Will do. Agnes Scott is the only one on her list under 1000 students, and yes, just a bit under. Everything else about it seems a great fit. I will dig into the financial part more. I wouldn’t want her to end up somewhere that closes shop during her 4 years.
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@Abhshu, the research in “Dream School” (Chapter 2) found that Ivy-plus schools do offer a bump (at least in salary as a proxy for jobs) to the very top of their graduating classes. But on average they’re not different than grads of flagship publics in many states. Also, we found that the selectivity and major do matter for earnings after college. But you know what also matters – and indeed more than major and selectivity – skills and experience. We found that students with the right internships and co-ops and skills ended up outearning those students from higher-ranked skills and majors we think pay well in STEM and business.
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@AustenNut, if it’s stable then that’s a good sign. As for endowment, look at endowment per student.
As a guide, you could use the average per student across all college endowments, which is $219,000, but even that is a slippery figure. Endowment is just one indicator, so try not to overthink it. Here’s a suggestion from the book: Among the colleges on your list, sort by total endowment and endowment per student. If all other things are equal in the end, favor those with higher numbers in both categories because they’ll have the resources to weather financial storms and to provide extras in the undergraduate experience.
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