Quieting the Noise: Recapping Our Conversation with NYT Bestselling Author Jeff Selingo

Drawing on our exclusive conversation with New York Times bestselling author Jeff Selingo, College Solutions CEO Margaret Baudinet reflects on what families often miss amid today’s increasingly noisy college admissions landscape. This post distills key insights from their discussion of Dream School and offers a grounded perspective on why fit, engagement, and long-term outcomes matter more than prestige alone.

There is more noise around college admissions right now than at any point I can remember in my nearly fifteen years of doing this work.

I say that as someone who lives with a great deal of literal noise. I have nine-year-old quintuplets, five voices, five opinions, five sets of questions, all at once. And a two-year-old who delights in running through our house wearing a life jacket, oversized Dumbledore glasses borrowed from her older siblings, and my bedroom slippers. It is chaotic, joyful, and loud in ways that require patience and perspective.

And yet, even that noise is easier to interpret than the noise surrounding college admissions today.

Families are surrounded by it. Rankings refresh annually and dominate headlines. Acceptance rates drop and are broadcast as breaking news. Social media turns college decisions into public performance, flags in front yards, Instagram announcements, whispered comparisons in school hallways. Group chats buzz with advice that is often well-intentioned but rarely contextual. Even data, which should bring clarity, often does the opposite when delivered without nuance.

In my house, I know that when things get loud, it does not always mean something is wrong. It usually means something needs attention. The same is true in college admissions. The system has become louder and faster, but volume alone does not equal meaning. Too often, families are asked to make life-shaping decisions in an environment that rewards urgency over reflection.

What I hear most often from parents is not fear about whether their child will get into college. It is something deeper and more unsettling:

How do we know our kid will get into the right college for them?

Parents worry about regret. They worry about missed opportunities, about doors opening too early or closing too fast, about making a decision that shapes not just the next four years, but the person their child becomes. And when the admissions process gets louder, it becomes dangerously easy to confuse motion with progress.

It was in this context that I had the opportunity to interview Jeff Selingo about his newest book, Dream School. I have long admired Jeff’s work, but what struck me most during our conversation was not just the rigor of his research. It was the way his insights quiet the noise.

Jeff does not dismiss the pressure families feel. He explains where it comes from and why it persists. He challenges one of the most common assumptions in admissions, that selectivity is synonymous with quality. Acceptance rates, he reminds us, are headcount measures, not indicators of student engagement, access to opportunity, or long-term outcomes. Take, for example, the concept of “yield” in college admissions:

This distinction matters deeply. When families rely too heavily on rankings and brand names, they often overlook what actually shapes a student’s experience. What they do in college, the relationships they build with faculty and mentors, and whether an institution is designed to support growth rather than competition for its own sake.

At College Solutions, this is why we talk so intentionally about fit. Fit is not a buzzword. It is a responsibility. A true dream school is not defined by prestige alone. It is a place where students feel a sense of belonging, where their learning style is respected, where they are challenged but not overwhelmed, and where curiosity is encouraged rather than crowded out.

Jeff shared powerful stories that reinforce this idea. Students who chased prestige sometimes found themselves boxed out of research, advising, and community. Others who chose schools outside the spotlight became deeply engaged learners, big fish in smaller ponds, who earned fellowships, graduate school placements, and professional opportunities alongside peers from the most elite institutions. Again and again, the pattern was clear. Engagement matters more than exclusivity. As he explained, selectivity is not the same as quality:

Another insight that resonated strongly with me was Jeff’s framing of return on investment. Families often focus on projected earnings without fully considering cost. Yet when students graduate with manageable or no debt, they gain flexibility. They are able to pursue graduate school, public service, research, or careers aligned with their values. That freedom is rarely captured in rankings, but it profoundly shapes life after college. Hear what Jeff had to say about co-op schools, which incorporate experiential learning into the college experience:

Perhaps most importantly, our conversation reinforced something I think about often as both a parent and an advisor. Growth is rarely quiet or linear. High school, and childhood more broadly, should still be a time of exploration. When students make every decision based on what they think will appeal to an admissions office they will never meet, learning loses its joy, and curiosity becomes transactional.

In my own home, the noise is constant. I do three loads of laundry a day. I can identify Cocomelon songs within the first three notes. And on any given evening, I am likely holding a toddler on one hip, brushing a child’s hair with one hand, stirring dinner with the other, and still mentally mapping out my next college visit to one of Mr. Selingo's new Dream Schools. It is messy and imperfect, but it works because the focus is not on doing everything at once. It is on knowing what matters in each moment.

That perspective is exactly what families need in the college search. When we quiet the noise, step back from the urgency, and focus on fit, purpose, and growth, the process becomes not just more manageable, but more meaningful. The goal is not simply getting into college. It is helping students and parents move forward with confidence, clarity, and trust in the path ahead.