Ep. 100: What Dream School Teaches Us About Trust, Truth and Recruitment

Jaime Hunt sits down with higher education journalist and bestselling author Jeff Selingo to unpack insights from his newest book, Dream School: Finding the College That’s Right for You. Drawing from two years of research—including surveys of more than 3,000 parents—Selingo explains how families are redefining what makes a “good college.”

The conversation explores the evolving role of prestige, the growing importance of outcomes and ROI, and what enrollment marketers must understand about parents, counselors, and the modern college search process. For higher ed professionals, this episode is a powerful lens into the shifting expectations shaping enrollment marketing today.

Guest Name: Jeff Selingo, The New York Times bestselling author of Dream School: Finding the College That's Right for You and Who Gets In and Why: A Year Inside College Admissions

Guest Social: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffselingo/

Guest Bio: Jeff Selingo has written about colleges and universities for more than 25 years and is a New York Times bestselling author of four books. His latest, Dream School: Finding the College That’s Right for You (September 2025), draws on more than two years of research and a survey of some 3,000 parents to give families permission to think more broadly about what signals a “good” college and then the tools to discover their dream school. He is also the author of Who Gets In & Why: A Year Inside College Admissions, named one of the New York Times’s 100 Notable Books of the Year in 2020.

A regular contributor to The Atlantic, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal, Jeff is a special advisor to the president and professor of practice at Arizona State University. He writes the biweekly newsletter Next and co-hosts the podcast Future U. He lives near Washington, D.C., with his family.

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Connect With Our Host:
Jaime Hunt
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaimehunt/
https://twitter.com/JaimeHuntIMC

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Confessions of a Higher Ed CMO is a part of the Enrollify Podcast Network. If you like this podcast, chances are you’ll like other Enrollify shows too! 

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