Here’s Jeff Salingo’s list of “dream schools” from his new book, broken into categories. It’s sort of a contemporary answer to Loren Pope’s list of “colleges that change lives”.
Hidden Values
Augustana
Bentley
Berry
Butler
Creighton
Denison
DePaul
DePauw
Dickinson
Elon
Fairfield
Furman
Gettysburg
Hobart & William Smith
Ithaca
Loyola Maryland
Macalester
St. Mary’s (CA)
Santa Clara
St. Olaf
Steven’s Institute of Technology
Trinity University (TX)
University of Dayton
University of Denver
University of the Pacific
Breakout Regionals
Baruch
Binghamton
Cal State Polytech, Pomona
Cal State, Fresno
College of New Jersey
Florida A&M
Florida International
George Mason
Georgia Southern
Marquette
Montclair State
San Diego State
University of North Carolina, Asheville
University of Puget Sound
Washington State
Large Leaders
Arizona State
Case Western Reserve
Colorado State
Clemson
Drexel
Fordham
Howard
Indiana
Miami, Ohiog
Michigan State
North Carolina State
Oregon State
Rochester Institute of Technology
Rutgers
Southern Methodist
Spelman
Syracuse
University of Alabama
UC Davis
UC San Diego
University of Delaware
UConn
University of Delaware
University of Illinois
University of Iowa
University of Kentucky
University of Maryland
UMass
University of Minnesota
University of Missouri
University of Oklahoma
University of Pittsburgh
University of Utah
Virginia Tech
William & Mary
I would - if the 3rd party data is to be believed, students come from only 22 states with NY by far the biggest with NJ second and not that that many kids.
It’s regional in every sense - as are all SUNYs.
They show NY with 2214 first year, NJ with 114 and PA is third with 18.
US News may like it but it’s an unknown nationally. I know it’s a great school but just looking bigger picture.
The school itself doesn’t seem to provide (that I could find) the breakout but I know SUNYs overall are very geographically narrow.
The official flagships of the SUNY system are actually Buffalo and Stony Brook. But otherwise I agree with you that Binghamton has the most “prestige” in the state system. They and Stony Brook draw the most applications.
Seems to me like this is the list of the next tier of selectivity of big schools after the likes of UCLA, Berkley, Michigan, UVA, UNC, GT, Purdue, UT, the UCs, etc… I’m actually surprised though to see UIUC and UMD on this list as I would have bumped them up a tier, especially for some majors.
I’m surprised to see UNC Asheville on the list, as it’s been struggling financially. Virtually all of its humanities programs except English and art history have been eliminated. A sorry state of affairs for a school that bills itself as a LAC!
It seems that the departments being cut have eliminated themselves. So few peopl were signing up for their offerings that they became unsustainable.
The really scary part for UNC-A is that the school has experienced a 25% decline in enrollment over the past 5 years. This is shocking in light of the fact that college applications have increased every year over these past 5 years until hitting an all time high over the pas5 2 years. If UNC-A couldn’t attract students when there were increasing numbers of applicants looking to find a college every year over the past 5 years, what will happen to them during the expected decline in applications over the next decade?
I was similarly surprised to see the College of NJ on his list. They’ve had documented financial problems, and I’ve heard feedback that it’s largely a suitcase / commuter school. (For some reason many NJ colleges have reputations of being suitcase schools, not sure why it seems so prevalent there). We looked at TCNJ for my S24 and nothing stood out to us, he didn’t end up applying there.
I think Jeff Selingo is trying to make his own distinctive list, pulling from his knowledge and experience. There will be overlap with other lists and categories from different sources.
There are a few head scratchers here, but there are always a few odd ones out on every list. Also, this list is in alphabetical order rather than being ranked. I think Selingo simply wants people to consider colleges that he believes have something to offer. Some of these names are more well known than others, naturally. He calls it “dream schools”, after all.
@tsbna44 Bing has been successfully recruiting more and more OOS students over the last seven years or so. It has been benefitting, especially in the last few years, from being well connected to NYC. It is becoming more known nationally, appearing more prominently on several lists. I think that’s why he has put it in the “breakout” category. (If anyone is interested, I regularly post updates in the Binghamton subforum where there are several linked lists.)
I heard Jeff in a lengthy interview recently. He believes that college admissions has become a game, run by the colleges, in which they hold all the cards. In the end, the colleges pick who will be admitted.
He is advising parents to stop playing the game. It’s a game you can’t win because it’s rigged. Instead of letting the colleges be the ones who choose who gets in, he says, you be the chooser. You can’t get into those elite schools anyway, he says, so he proposes this list as a group of very good schools that you can actually get into, a group from which you will do the choosing rather than the other way around. . . and have a good chance of getting a discount.
An important feature of this list is that it is national. He says that most kids go to schools more or less close to home, so a list for everyone should include at least some schools which are within reach geographically of anyone in the country regardless of where you live.
Yes, although there are a few like Augustan’s and Washington State that don’t pop up very often.
Actually Jeff is taking the opposite approach from the rankings which rank schools with low acceptance rates the highest. He really isn’t looking at school with acceptance rates below 20% and he makes it a point to include good schools with acceptance rates above 60 and 70%
You have nice thoughts & sentiments, and you express them well, but I still see the list as random and meaningless (as well as incorrect in the case of several of the listed schools); why not just use The Fiske Guide To Colleges so one at least understands why the 300+ schools are included ?
My best guess is that the author included the random list of schools from across the nation for two reasons; one, to encourage nationwide publicity for his book in an effort to increase sales, and, two, because people/readers like lists.
I think it’s refreshing to see a list of great schools that fall into the likely and target range for prospective college students. Continuing to promote schools with sub 20% acceptance rates doesn’t help students and families create a balanced list. Jeff’s list does!
I think because the Fiske guide has 300+ schools on it! It’s too long. Not everybody has college admissions as a hobby the way we regular CC posters do. Currently people are paying big money to have some private college counselor say “If you like Brown, you should also consider Macalester.” So maybe instead pay $27 to Jeff Selingo to say the same thing. Seems like a good deal to me.