Dream School

Jeffrey Selingo, a journalist who has covered higher education for three decades, builds on his previous book, Who Gets In and Why, to argue that the concept of a single "dream school" is a myth. Instead of focusing on how colleges make admissions decisions, this companion work addresses how families should decide, urging them to look beyond a small set of elite institutions and find colleges where students can genuinely thrive.

Selingo opens with the story of William, a high-achieving Midwestern teenager who earned a perfect score on the ACT, a standardized college entrance exam, and applied through early decision, a binding early application plan, to Columbia University. William was accepted but quickly grew disillusioned by the competitive culture, limited course access, and a student body focused on productivity over friendship. He transferred to the University of Minnesota, where he found equally rigorous courses, research opportunities, lower tuition, and classmates who prioritized meaningful connections. William's experience frames the book's central thesis: There is no perfect school, only schools that fit a student's personality, learning style, and goals. With roughly 1,200 viable four-year colleges in the United States, families have far more good options than they realize.

Part I examines why assumptions about elite colleges are wrong. Selingo traces how the admissions landscape destabilized after 2020 through three pandemic-era shifts: hundreds of schools dropped standardized test requirements, causing applications to spike; colleges expanded early decision and early action (a non-binding early application option) rounds; and schools embraced "yield management," deferring or rejecting applicants they suspected would use them as backups. He follows Kim, a Washington, D.C., mother whose three children experienced progressively harder college searches. Kim's youngest, Mia, had a 4.0 GPA and 10 Advanced Placement (AP) courses, college-level classes taken in high school, yet she was deferred (moved to the regular decision round) by most of her target schools and ultimately rejected by 12 of 18. Grade inflation, Selingo argues, has made transcripts like Mia's "fairly common" (23), while test-optional policies have muddied the signaling power of standardized scores.

Selingo then challenges the assumption that an elite degree is necessary for career success. He profiles Beth, a Harvard Law School graduate who deliberately chose a small liberal arts college outside the top 100 in U.S. News rankings to be a "big fish in a small pond." Supported by mentors and small classes, Beth conducted undergraduate research and earned admission to Harvard Law School, where she was selected for the Harvard Law Review. Selingo introduces the "big fish, little pond effect," a theory from psychologists Herbert Marsh and John W. Parker showing that many high achievers struggle at ultra-competitive institutions, and cites UCLA researchers who found that for every 10-point increase in the average SAT score of an entering class, the likelihood of retaining students in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) majors decreased by two percentage points. Drawing on economist David Deming's work with Opportunity Insights, Selingo notes that while graduates of Ivy-plus schools, a category encompassing the Ivy League and similarly elite universities, were more likely to reach the top 1 percent of earners, their average income was not dramatically different from graduates of selective public flagships, each state's leading public research university. Deming's analogy captures the point: Public flagship graduates each receive one lottery ticket for a top career; Ivy-plus graduates get two, but most people in both groups end up with similar outcomes.

Part II maps how the admissions landscape is shifting. Selingo documents the "Great Student Swap," in which out-of-state enrollment at public flagships more than doubled between 2002 and 2022. State funding cuts forced schools to recruit nonresidents who pay higher tuition. The University of Alabama pioneered this strategy, growing from 23 percent out-of-state students to 65 percent by offering merit scholarships and investing heavily in recruitment. Southern flagships gained further momentum during the pandemic, when fewer campus restrictions and images of traditional college life drew students from other regions. Selingo profiles Emily, a student rejected by the University of Chicago who chose the University of Mississippi's honors college, a selective academic program within the larger university, on a full scholarship, finding that the less pressured environment gave her room to build meaningful friendships.

Selingo then argues that families are increasingly choosing value over prestige. He introduces the "donut hole" of financial aid: Families earning roughly $200,000 to $250,000 are too wealthy for need-based aid but not wealthy enough to pay full price comfortably. He follows Frida and her daughter Abby, who faced full-price expectations at Bowdoin College despite Abby's strong academic profile. Despite acceptances at Williams College and Davidson College, Abby chose the College of William & Mary for its full scholarship, research funding, and less pressured culture. The share of high-earning families paying full sticker price at private colleges fell from 64 percent in the mid-1990s to 28 percent by 2020, reflecting what Selingo calls "quiet luxury": investing in less-flashy schools that deliver lasting value.

In a chapter on personal agency, Selingo urges students to resist pressure to lock into predetermined paths. He cites psychologist Albert Bandura's theory that personal agency is strongest during the college search and early undergraduate years, before career constraints narrow options. Research by Wendy Fischman and Howard Gardner (The Real World of College) found that about half of freshmen view college transactionally, but those who approach it as exploration often find it transformational. Selingo notes that about one-third of undergraduates switch majors and argues that students should use college to explore broadly before committing.

Part III provides a practical framework for evaluating colleges. Selingo notes that data from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) shows differences in engagement between the most selective colleges and less selective ones are small; on measures of higher-order learning, there was no statistically significant difference among freshmen. He organizes his framework around four components. On mentoring, Selingo argues that relationships with professors are the most important factor in college success, citing research that "good teaching is the primary means through which institutions affect students" (155). He profiles Furman University's Pathways program, where freshmen join small cohorts with peer mentors and faculty advisors, and presents Gallup data showing that graduates who had a mentor were twice as likely to be engaged at work, yet fewer than a quarter of alumni reported having one.

On belonging, Selingo identifies three domains: academic (participating and meeting with professors in the first seven weeks), residential (seeking living-learning communities, or residence halls and floors organized around shared interests, over luxury amenities), and extracurricular (expanding networks through activities). He cites psychologists Geoffrey Cohen and Gregory Walton, whose research found that brief interventions addressing "belonging uncertainty" during freshman year improved completion rates and well-being years later.

On financial sustainability, Selingo warns that 29 percent of colleges are in precarious financial positions and provides tools for assessing a school's health, including bond-rating reports (assessments from financial agencies of a school's creditworthiness), enrollment trends, and the breadth of a school's academic programs. He profiles Birmingham-Southern College, which closed in 2024 after years of overexpansion despite its strong reputation.

On career outcomes, Selingo argues that internships are essential. Research shows that nothing predicts underemployment more strongly than the absence of an internship, regardless of school selectivity, gender, or race. Analysis with the Burning Glass Institute finds that specialized skills like data analytics can substantially boost graduates' earnings, and Selingo recommends that students seek schools with built-in internship requirements or co-op programs, which alternate academic terms with full-time paid work experience.

The book concludes with an appendix listing 75 "New" Dream Schools in three categories: Hidden Values (smaller private colleges like Denison University and Furman University), Breakout Regionals (mostly public institutions like Baruch College and George Mason University), and Large Leaders (big universities like Case Western Reserve University and the University of Maryland). Selingo closes by arguing that the right school equips students with the mindset, relationships, and skills for the decades ahead, and that when students find such a place, "that college will become your dream school" (245).