Choosing College

Choosing College addresses the challenge that students and their families face in choosing the right path for their post-secondary education. The rankings, metrics and analytics designed to help make the decision process easier lack the information and context needed to make such a critical determination about whether-and where-to get an education. Choosing College is firmly grounded in research and aims to help individuals determine their goals to make better-informed decisions about their education. This book offers illustrative examples from more than 200 stories of students choosing different post-secondary educational experiences, including traditional four-year universities, two-year community colleges, vocational training, and more. These examples reveal, in an accessible, inclusive way, the motivations for how and why people make the decisions to select one path over another. This book helps students and their families understand not what job a student wants after college, but what job a student is hiring a school to do. By adopting the Jobs to Be Done theory, students can develop an understanding of what motivates them. Choosing College presents five different Jobs for which students hire postsecondary education. The book explores the set of experiences necessary to help students succeed in each Job, offers students guidance for framing the decision before them, and allows them to see their true set of desirable options. Choosing College gives students, parents, counselors, and educational leaders an important guide for making better choices for their post-secondary education.