Michael B. Horn - Choosing College: How to Make Better Learning Decisions Throughout Your Life

1. Chapter 3
2. Chapter 4
3. Chapter 9
4. Appendix

College is still one of the greatest avenues to personal opportunity in the world. But the stakes now are higher, and the financial investment demands that we make good choices about where and how to pursue education. There is no better guide than the thoughtful and insightful Michael Horn to help us understand what matters in college, what we can expect from a degree, and how to make the most of the college experience. If you are looking for one book to guide your choice, start here!

Mary B. Marcy, President, Dominican University of California

In Choosing College Michael B. Horn and Bob Moesta dive into the complexities of making learning decisions and emerge with clear, compassionate guidelines for both learners and educators.

Adele Faber, co-author of How To Talk So Kids Can Learn

Does the world need yet another college guide book? It most certainly needs this fresh and insightful book from Michael Horn, who eschews the usual catalog of college profiles and instead focuses on the prospective student and the jobs they need college to do for them, Based on research, thousands of student profiles, and informed by a deep understanding of higher education, Choosing College should be read together by students and their families and used as a way to frame the often fraught conversation about choosing the right college. Choosing the right college remains an often befuddling and irrational process. This book changes all that, not because it provides better answers. It provides better questions, and that's what has long been needed. If you are considering college, this should be the first book you read. It may be the only one you'll need.

Paul LeBlanc, President of Southern New Hampshire University

This is a friendly, pragmatic, accessible guide demystifying what is an often intimidating and stressful decision attended by an intimidating and stressful process. The authors focus on self-knowledge and the all-important personal whywhy college, why now, why a particular type of institution, etc., rather than the elitist, extrinsic agenda-driven approach of too many college guides. I wish we'd had this book when our children were making their higher education decisions; I wish I'd had it when I was making mine.

Whitney Johnson, Thinkers50 Management Thinkers and best-selling author of Build an A Team and Disrupt Yourself

In offering 21st century advice in Choosing College to students and parents about what to seek in a college experience, Michael Horn and Bob Moesta also lead counselors, teachers, and higher education leaders to examine what they are offering today's applicants. Introducing the Jobs to Be Done concept is a practical guide for sparking reflection, relevance, and renewal across the teaching and learning spectrum. I found how Horn and Moesta provide personal human stories on top of extensive data to be extremely effective driving home key points. This book provides an engaging approach to students and parents making critical decisions about college; even better, it pushes higher education leaders to make decisions that will sharpen their institution's relevance to learners with different needs. And for policymakers confronting tough decisions about higher education, Choosing College is a good starting point for matching how well a state's institutions are meeting today's student and workforce needs.

Bob Wise, Former West Virginia Governor and Congressman

Horn and Moesta's Jobs to Be Done model can lower the stress and confusion caused by the multitude of higher education options and career choices. Not only does this book teach students and their parents how to explore education and career options, but it also demonstrates how they can have a positive dialog during the process. Colleges and universities can also gain insights from exploring this framework as a new approach to understanding how learning experiences and student life circumstances can better connect.

Jerry Weber, President of Bellevue Community College

Too many books focus on how to get into college without starting with the more fundamental question: Why are you going and how will you make it count? Horn and Moesta have developed a powerful framework to help students, and the adults who support them, put purpose and agency at the heart of the college decision process. And the world will be better for it!

Abby Falik, Founder and CEO of Global Citizen Year

Choosing College removes the mystery around educational choices and provides a framework to help people deeply understand why they are considering more education. this book gives them the knowledge and tools to make the right life decisions. This is a critically important and timely work that should be read by all who want to advance their lives through learning.

Don Kilburn, CEO University of MA Online and Former President of Pearson North America

Horn and Moesta shed novel light on what is really at work when students choose college. By helping us all focus on what we really seek from college and therefore what really matters to us, they open up rich new terrain for thinking better about one of the most important, and often expensive, choices we make. As a parent, this book helped me rise above brand chasing toward smart matching. As a leader in higher education, this feels like a needed wake-up call at a crucial moment in history to setting mission and focusing priorities for institutions to move beyond trying to be all things to all people.

Chris Gabrieli, Chairman, Massachusetts Board of Higher Education and lecturer, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Choosing to attend or return to college is a critical life decision. Students hire a college to do many things. But many prospective students don't fully recognize the criteria on which to make their choice. Sometimes educational Jobs to Be Done are well understood and sometimes they are more tacit. Michael Horn and Bob Moesta have captured and articulated the jobs students hire a college to do in a compelling and intuitive way. Better understanding these jobs can more effectively inform student choice. It can also better inform how colleges and universities can serve students and the jobs they are hired to do through their education. This book is as helpful to the prospective student as it is to the university administrator. Choosing College provides a significant contribution to the work of higher education and our collective efforts to better serve students.

Clark Gilbert, President of Brigham Young University Pathway Worldwide and Former President of Brigham Young University-Idaho

Michael Horn and Bob Moesta deliver insight after insight about why students choose college and how to serve them better. A roadmap for leaders in the new world of higher education.

Alex Hernandez, dean, University of Virginia School of Continuing and Professional Studies

For almost every individual, the question of college - whether to go, where to go, what major - is one of those life-changing decisions? And while the data continue to support the attainment of postsecondary credentials as the surest path to opportunity, the college choice is decidedly a personal one. In Choosing College, Michael and Bob expertly apply the Jobs to Be Done theory to this seminal question, resulting in an incredibly relevant and useful guide for individuals, and those that support them, to evaluate their own reasons and purpose for attending college. It further highlights how and why different learners need different models and options to be successful. The research, personal stories, data, and conclusions weave a compelling narrative, whether you are a first-time, returning, or continuing learner.