- I write a whole book on that! Not an easy answer. But focus on belonging (can you find your people there), faculty/mentors, outcomes, and will it provide the skills you need in the academic programs you’re interested in. Impossible to give a complete answer here.
- Great question! I like this tool I shared earlier. You’re looking for colleges that "punch above their weight"Beating the Odds: Improving Student Outcomes in Higher Education | Bain & Company
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@Jenabeth, St Olaf was way ahead of its time on career services. Both St. Olaf and Dickinson have good outcomes.
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@clueless888, all good choices. Look at the College Scorecard and see the differences in salaries between the 3 for engineering. My best is that it’s not much.
My daughter is a sophomore at CWRU, premed, and living her best life. Suggest you join the FB group for CWRU future spartan parents. Very friendly crowd that will be happy to answer questions. And visit if you can, that’s the best way to determine if it might be a good fit
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Does your book touch on making best choices for neurodiverse students applying to college?
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@pancake2, great questions. 1.) I like to look for schools where the faculty actually want to teach or spend time mentoring undergrads – not focused on grad students or where there’s competition to get into classes and clubs (which is the case at elite schools – wait until you read the Intro of my next book!)
- Undergrad research is what’s called a High Impact Practice. It’s known to help engage students, keep them in school, graduate and get a job. So, too, is project-based learning, internships, co-ops, etc. So it’s important but not the end all be all.
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@LGNYC, worry less about the rankings and more about the outcomes in engineering. Compare it to other engineering programs on the College Scorecard to see how earnings might compare.
@Sandi_CA, not necessarily. See this: Undergraduate Institutions - Harvard Law School | Jeff Selingo | 23 comments
@momofboiler1, great question. I look more at outcomes than rankings. But when looking at rankings, I do pay more attention to individual programs/schools than overall university. And that’s true of many parents, according to a survey I took for my new book.
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@Catcherinthetoast, I used the top 25 national colleges/universities list from US News to describe top + top 10 national liberal arts colleges (fewer from that list because there aren’t as many)
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@nadineiru, as I just commented on another one, top 10 LACs are still known IMHO. Worry less about the prestige and more what you want out of the experience. Ohio State vs. Kenyon is VERY different.
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@beantownn, love Santa Clara. If they want to stay on the west coast, most people have heard of it there. Again, as I’ve said multiple times, higher ed otuside of the very, very top institutions, is a regional game.
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@eluis, yes. You’re not buying a better education at many prestigious universities. You’re basically buying a network.
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Thank you, @Jeff_Selingo for sharing your findings and answering our questions! It’s been a very insightful Q&A! We look forward to meeting you next time and, of course, reading your upcoming book, which can be ordered here: Dream School - Jeff Selingo
Jeff will take the remaining questions and answer them in coming issues of his newsletter: Subscribe to Next - Jeff Selingo (which is FREE!)
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@sureal23, the population cliff won’t impact the highly selective colleges like UVA and Davidson which recruit from a much broader set of states.
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@i5abell4, look at the Common Data Set for the school (search School + Common Data Set) and then look at financial section – there’s a split between what they give for financial need and non-financial need. You want to look for the schools that give more for financial need.
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Thank you all for joining me tonight. My fingers are tired 
See you all soon and good luck. This was fun. We’ll be doing it again.
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Thank you so much!
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MANY THANKS! We LOVED your last book and wish your new book was available now as it’s our last round… but I will order your new book none the less. Thank you!
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Thank you! @Jeff_Selingo
I just pre-ordered the new book. I’m looking forward to reading the early bonus content that will be sent to folks that pre-order. What a nice treat for those of us that can’t wait until September!
I’ve got twins that are juniors. I will be digging in to your book as soon as it arrives this fall.
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