Welcoming attendees to his Sept. 19 book-launch party at Denison Edge in downtown Columbus, best-selling author Jeffrey Selingo announced to applause that Dream School: Finding the College That’s Right for You had debuted at #7 on The New York Times Bestseller List.
Then he suggested a friendly competition with another best-selling author, Denison alum James Clear ’08, whose book Atomic Habits has been on the Times list for more than 300 weeks.
“He’s still #4, so we still have a little while to go,” Selingo joked.
Selingo — whose award-winning writing on higher education has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post — names Denison one of 75 institutions that get higher education right in Dream School. The book is a follow-up to his 2020 book, Who Gets In and Why: A Year Inside College Admissions.
Dream School is meant to help families find a great college that is right for them, rather than fixate on the relative handful of widely-considered prestigious schools that are extremely selective and may be a poor fit. Dream School, Selingo said, gives families the tools to think more broadly about what makes a great college or university.
“I wanted to expand the field of vision for families,” he said. “We all know that great educations happen everywhere.”
In Dream School, Selingo lauds Denison’s focus on professional development, relationship building, and investment in data analysis across disciplines. The college’s commitment to career-readiness within a liberal arts construct makes it a clear “hidden value,” he writes.
Elsewhere in the book, Selingo features Denison President Adam Weinberg, who discusses the importance of relationships at any college.
Selingo writes:
“‘It’s one of the few givens in higher ed that if you get the relationships right, everything else follows,’ Weinberg told me when I first met him on a 2017 visit to Denison. Since then I’ve interviewed Weinberg several times, and we’ve served on a board together. Each time we spoke, Weinberg told me how Denison isn’t leaving relationships to chance.”
The book launch party, held in Denison’s innovative career-readiness hub in downtown Columbus, coincided with the 2025 conference of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, also being held downtown. Many conference attendees came to the book launch; 200 people had RSVP’d for the event, said Elizabeth Skovron, marketing and communications director at Denison Edge.
In his introduction of Selingo, Weinberg said the two first met when Selingo was an editor at The Chronicle of Higher Education. Weinberg came to consider him a friend and confidant on myriad higher education issues.
“He’s the go-to person for a lot of us,” Weinberg said.
Weinberg said Selingo has remained focused, in his writing and speaking engagements, on a key question that all institutions must remember: “How do we help young people get the education they need and deserve?”
Selingo said he knew after his first meeting with Weinberg that “Denison was a place I wanted to track.”
Denison, he said, “had all the elements of a dream school. It’s all happening here.”
New national rankings show Denison rising in multiple categories, reflecting the college’s growing momentum and affirming its position as the nation’s premier liberal arts college for career preparation.
Just-released rankings by U.S. News & World Report show that Denison has risen from #36 to #34 on its list of top national liberal arts colleges, a jump of 21 places since 2016.
Denison also climbed to #2 for best career services and #4 for best classroom experience among all 2,400 four-year colleges and universities in the U.S. in The Princeton Review’s 2026 Best Colleges rankings. The college also earned top honors for its students’ overall experience and satisfaction — #2 for happiest students, #6 for best quality of life, and #7 for students who love their college.
Dream School is now available at major booksellers through Simon and Schuster.