How Your Prospects Are Choosing Their College (and building your approach around the realities)
The marketing guru I revere the most nailed the problem, and proposed a good solution. But is it realistic? Probably not...
I was actually fairly practical when I started looking at possible colleges back in the olden days of the mid-1980’s.
I thought I wanted to stay close to home, I wanted to be around some of my high school friends in college, and I wanted a place where I could get a good start to my dream of being a television sports broadcaster (which I did for seven years, so…mission accomplished, I guess!) But again, overall, I was fairly mundane in my approach to college.
Fast forward 40ish years, and things are wildly different.
Which is why I sat up and took notice when my absolute favorite marketing and business author, Seth Godin, published an article to end 2023 on choosing a college. The thing I like about Seth is that he’s insightful, and forward thinking, when it comes to not only marketing trends and processes, but how they affect society at large…including that part of our society that is in the process of picking a college.
That said, I think he’s being a little altruistic when it comes to how he feels a student should choose a college. Actually, let me take that back: I think the way he recommends that choice happen is incredibly intelligent. It’s just that it’s not human nature, and takes very little into account when it comes to the emotional aspect of the decision that dominates the way most families go about the decision-making process.
On Choosing a College
Here’s the article I’m referencing, along with my thoughts and feedback. Tell me what you think.
For some fortunate 17 year olds, the end of the year is the day for a momentous decision, one that’s largely out of the comfort zone of a 17 year old.
A four-year college education in the US can cost nearly half a million dollars once we count the expenses and foregone opportunities that go with it. It can shift our persona, our learning and most of all, the systems we live in for the rest of our lives…
There’s an interesting cross section here when it comes to the idea of a ‘college education’. I chose to go to a state school, and I believe the tuition cost was about $4,000 a year. So, by today’s standards, incredibly affordable. Plus, 40ish years ago, a college education - the degree, the proof you did it - was virtually the only thing close to a guarantee of a possible successful life you had back then. Not that a person couldn’t be successful without a college degree, but it was just harder. My grandfather was a success, and he didn’t graduate from high school. But, again, an affordable degree increased your odds back in the 1980’s.
Today, don’t you agree we are in the middle of a different story? Haven’t things changed over the past four decades when it comes to what college is, how much it costs, and the value of the degree as it relates to the question of how successful you could be in your professional life?
I think that’s where we are societally right now as a country. We have a tradition of college being important, and an idea of how it contributes to a higher degree of success in life thereafter, but…is that still as much of the case as it once was? You’ve got companies hiring young people without college degrees, and teenagers skipping college because they’re making so much money gaming they don’t want to give it up in favor of going to class on a college campus. Oh yeah, and also, there’s the whole college debt thing.
Keep all that in mind as you read on…
One way to make a complex decision of this magnitude is to relentlessly make it simpler. We can begin by vividly describing the flavors, factors and preferences that go into the choice (I have heard every single one of these from students I’ve coached or spent time with) and then pruning them away:
I like the weather there
They have recycling bins all over campus
The tour guide who showed us around was cute/engaging/friendly
I think I’d have fun at the football games
My peers in high school will be impressed
It is much cheaper than the alternatives
It’s expensive and so it must be better
I might make the soccer team
I grew up watching the school’s teams on television
I hear they have a really good math program
It’s close to my house and doing laundry will be easier
It’s far from my house and I won’t have to deal with being at home a lot
My parents went there
My parents didn’t go there
It feels right
I’m tired of this and need to get it over with already
It was a stretch to get in and I feel accomplished
It was a stretch to get in and I feel intimidated
My guidance counselor said it was a ‘good’ school
The people I know have heard of this school
I know exactly what I want to do for a living and this is the best place to start on that journey
Many of these are matters of short-term taste, and are the sorts of things we bring up when everything else either feels the same or we’re afraid to examine the real issues too closely. In my case, I picked the college I went to partly based on the radio station I heard (or didn’t hear) when I visited the campus.
A few pieces of feedback:
Godin describes successfully ‘pruning away’ the list of emotional, illogical, non-college-education related decision factors that many college students might use to justify their choice in a school. I think it’s harder with athletes because of, as I describe it, “the x-factor” of being an athlete, and playing sports. I know the
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