Future U. is back—as is my co-host, Jeff Selingo, with his fourth book.
In the second episode of this, our 9th, season, I put Jeff on the hot seat to dive into several aspects of his new book Dream School: Finding the College That’s Right for You.
As Jeff told me, this is a companion book to his bestseller Who Gets In and Why: A Year Inside College Admissions. And it’s designed to put to rest the notion that there is just one dream school—and instead help students and families grapple with the tradeoffs that come with applying to and enrolling in a college.
At the end of the book, Jeff has a list of the “new dream schools.” It’s worth a good look—but what I was interested in was the criteria behind the list and how Jeff selected and calculated those measures. We then dug into several of the premises of the book—how to make tradeoffs, the ability of colleges to help reduce anxiety and derisk the investment that families make when they enroll in a college, and the arguments underlying Jeff’s claim that, as a culture, we've over-indexed on the elite colleges.
As Jeff told me, “This book is not a screed against the elites in the Ivy Leagues, and Ivy Pluses and the best universities we have in the U.S. I love them for the reason is that they are known throughout the world as having just high quality students. I think we should invest in high quality students. I think we should invest in federal research, in research in general. I think that these institutions should not be taken down, but you can actually keep lifting them up while you also lift up other institutions as well — to say, hey, these aren't the only places.”
Listen to (or read) our whole conversation at “Redefining the ‘Dream School’”—and of course check out Jeff’s book as well.
No Time for Relaxing
In our first episode, Jeff and I delved into some of the many headlines that impacted higher education over the summer. Among them, we talked about some of the big settlements and federal oversight impacting schools like Columbia and Brown that unlocked frozen federal funds; admissions data mandates and whether they would be effective; the continuing challenges that schools face financially; the clash between the efficiencies AI could bring and higher ed’s culture; and the impact of the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” that links aid to college outcomes and puts limits on loans. While a lot of the moves in that bill have been painted as a negative for higher education in the media, check out the episode to hear my contrary take and why I think it will prove to be a positive for the sector over the medium-to-long-run.
You can listen to it all here at “No Relaxing Summer for Higher Ed”—or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
As always, thanks for reading, writing, and listening.