Hello, friends--This is the final post of the March Madness 2026 series, Beyond the Brand. These entries have focused on "the other March Madness" which transcends the world of sports. How does one make the final college decision? ICYMI First, I want to remind you that ALL of our interactive visualization tools for families and counselors have been unlocked. Everything is free! I'm hosting the work off-website, though. It keeps things cheap and easy on my end. If you fi

A caveat inherent with large state institutions seems to go unnoticed: the college which is on display during campus tours has a shelf life of about nine months. Everything begins as expected, and the student emulates the people shown in the brochures. It's all togetherness, ballgames, community, and a sense of belonging to something bigger than oneself. Then, the switch flips. As shown in the chart of the Final Four schools above, no less than seismic proportions of stude

Earnings data comes with a dozen or more caveats, the most significant being its limited coverage of graduates: only those who received federal aid will have their salaries included. Cohort sizes have to meet a certain threshold for privacy protection as well. Nonetheless, there are six majors which are offered by all 8 remaining teams in the NCAA tournament and for which we have earnings data--that's something we can work with! Why not put this data to especially good use

Beyond the Brand: How can a family look beyond the highly-curated verrsion of a college or university presented by the admissions office and figure out whether or not it's the place for their student? One of my favorite tips for evaluating the more subjective elements of an institution is by perusing student newspapers. Specifically, I recommend that readers focus on editorial pages and ads for upcoming events. What student concerns seem prevalent? Does the community see

The theme of this year's posts is Beyond the Brand. We provide the information with high school seniors and parents in mind. Tournament season occurs at that time of year when families should be scrutinizing college choices beyond the hype, the opinions of others, and the chirpy branding which emanates from colleges to which students have been admitted.

by Leigh Moore (The pace of our blog will heat up for the next 3 weeks, as I continue my annual tradition of March Madness posts. This year, the posts will align with the kind of information a family should evaluate before the student makes a final decision.) As Moore College Data increasingly focuses on family resources, the most important message I have for parents is this: Be parents. When it’s time to make the final decision, adults need to be in the room—not to choo

by Leigh Moore As we head into tonight's championship game, I offer a final tip for anyone evaluating a college or university. A little-known resource is the First Destination Survey, information provided by most colleges on their websites. The publications vary from school to school in quality, quantity, and user experience, but both institutions represented in tonight's matchup host outstanding, fact-filled pages. Click the images below to be taken to the interactive das

by Leigh Moore 3.26.2025 Beyond the Bracket: Round 3 – The College Cheat Sheet March Madness is in full swing—and while many are glued to basketball brackets, thousands of families are caught in a different kind of frenzy: comparing college offers and making a final decision. A few years ago, a friend asked me, “What are the 10 most important metrics to consider before making a final college choice?” That question sparked the idea to create a tool to show selected colleges

by Leigh Moore March 17, 2025 The NCAA tourney provides me a good opportunity to scale things down for a couple of weeks, to go deep in the analysis of 68 teams rather than the usual 1300. No fretting about which schools to include; it's all done for me. 2025, here we go, ready or not! The dashboard below illustrates a few metrics. Be sure to hover so that you can see what these charts are actually saying. That is, who exactly has a buyout agreement exceeding $40M? Even wi

A lot of us want families to ignore rankings when making college decisions. For those who are willing to do so, where do we direct their

There's March Madness and then there's March Madness.   NCAA-Style  As a native Kentuckian, I love March Madness.  No one would call me a basketball fan, actually; for me, it's more of a family thing. I know where to find my people when the games are on, you know?  I like to have fun with the season in my own way, too.  A few seasons ago, I realized that 68 teams is a fun-sized slice of the undergraduate pie.  I like to nerd out on the off-court characteristics of the institu

by Leigh Moore February 12, 2024 Hi, college data fans! The next time you log into your portal, you will find the newest downloadable workbook. It contains everything within our dataset which can be formatted into user-friendly tables. This is the start menu, with links to topical sheets. All other pages are formatted like the one below one, which happens to be a portion from our data documentation sheet. To navigate, the user can either uses the green "Go back" button,

Despite my affinity for charts, visualizations, and lists, I confess that I have mixed feelings about the public’s growing interest in college data . (Thank you, Ron Lieber, for the profile in the NYT!) For selfish reasons, I am gratified. There’s nothing like demand when it comes to enhancing one's bottom line. More importantly, though, knowledge is power. Equipped with the right tools, families are empowered for a proactive college search. My concern is that familie

"Students don’t always attend the most selective college which has admitted them." Every year, I post the above reminder on my personal Facebook page. And, without fail, somebody reaches out and thanks me for writing it—I suppose because that which is intellectually obvious during normal seasons of life can lose meaning when the emotions run high. If you ask a twelfth-grader where they are going to college, remember: your response matters to them. They are sometimes too roa

Hi, friends! I have a three-part blog post for you: Part 1 (for my fellow parents of the Class of 2023) Contextualizing the commitment If you have ever bought a house, you know how much information you are provided en route to the closing. I read recently that the average home purchase requires at least 100 signatures from both buyer and seller. Those signatures, of course, represent acknowledgements of information provided. PLEASE, parents, recognize that, despite the

by Leigh Moore A friend recently asked me to identify the ten most important facts when it comes to choosing a college. The higher ed choice starts and ends with the student’s unique priorities, but I liked the tacit question behind his challenge: What’s most important? Specifically, what data is most important? As some of you know, we have a senior at our house this year. He’s probably seen about half of the schools to which he’s been admitted. He simply will not be