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[Wesleyan] classmates transferred.
One who had grown up in California
said the winters were brutal, and he
got seasonal depression. It would have
helped him to know what someone from
California thought about college on the
East Coast. Another transferred because
the African-American community atWes-
leyanwasn’t what she had hoped.” In fact,
Goldman says, quoting fromthe
NewYork
Times
, one in three U.S. college students
winds up transferring. “That’s several mil-
lion students per year,” he says. “The cost
is
tremendous
.”
Goldman’s concerns about informed
college choice go back to his high school
By graduation, however, Goldman was
beginning to feel a li le constrained by
the book format, so he ended his publish-
ing contract and set out to re-create the
project online. For insight into what to
do next, he emailed dozens of students
and then perused his college’s alumni
database, filtering search results for
graduates who worked in finance in New
York and were at least 10 years older than
he was. “I took 50 people to coffee and
asked for advice,” Goldman says. “After
that, a few started to invest, and I hacked
together a site.”
Today, Unigo has about 15 employees,
mostly 20-somethings, and provides
on-demand viewpoints for all kinds of
students, including those with special
needs, cultural concerns and specific
academic passions. Sessions run from
$30 for 30 minutes with a student to $100
for an hour with an adult counselor (all
experts are ve ed by Unigo, and get a cut
of the fee). Unigo’s profits come from fees,
advertising and syndicating content.
In just a few short years, Goldman has
nearly driven traditional college guide-
books into obsolescence. Drawing upon
content created by students and coun-
selors, his company provides all school
reviews for
U.S. News & World Report
’s
annual college rankings as well as for the
magazine’s website; releases an annual
100-page college guide with
USA Today
;
and syndicates columns to theHuffington
Post and
Seventeen
magazine. And a er
garnering a $1.6 million investment from
McGraw-Hill Education, Unigo powers all
of the publishing giant’s college reviews.
(The two companies have also launched
a full-semester high school course taught
nationwide that focuses on “college and
career readiness.”)
While the cost of using Unigo’s website
can add up, Goldman believes the service
is well worth it for students who aren’t
ge ing what they need from traditional
rankings or alumni interviews. “We
tapped into the zeitgeist by saying to
college students, ‘You define your school,’”
he says. “People choose colleges for the
wrong reasons: because they’re highly
ranked or pre y. This is one of the biggest
investments of their life. Pre y quickly
the scenery fades away.”
ADAM BAER
will gladly tutor you on how to
write a winning college essay, but he charges
much more than $100 an hour.
days, when he attended a large public
school that had just one college counselor
for every 500 students. Between that
and traditional university guidebooks—
which delivered li le more than a short
summary of each school—he was dissat-
isfied. So, a er Googling “book proposal,”
the 18-year-old Goldman spent a week-
end writing a pitch for a crowdsourced
college review book, wri en by students
for students. He then sent the proposal
to five publishers, sans literary agent,
and landed a deal with Penguin. The
resulting guidebook came out annually, in
five updated versions, as Goldman made
his way through college.
INTELLECTUALLY ENDOWED
BROWN UNIVERSITY
“Brown gets its reputation as the ‘weird
Ivy’ due partially to its open curriculum
[students can take any class they want] and
progressive grading system. … ‘Interested
and engaged students foster deeper, more
involved discussions and, in my opinion, an
overall more fulfilling academic experience,’
says Stephanie, an English major. ‘[It’s]
learning for its own sake, not getting a job.’”
21ST-CENTURY EINSTEINS
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
“The average Caltech student can discuss
Stephen Hawking’s books, recite pi to 10
decimals, and talk about Schrödinger’s cat—
for fun. … ‘Students collaborate on homework
and there is no competition, which is
wonderful,’ says Marybeth, a physics major.
‘No spiting, no envy. We are smart enough to
realize that there’s no point. ... The work is so
hard it simply cannot be completed alone.’”
BANG FOR YOUR BUCK
BRIGHAMYOUNG UNIVERSITY
“The influence of Mormon culture on the
school is impossible to avoid, but considering
that 98 percent of the student body has ties
to the LDS Church, this is generally seen
as a positive thing. ... Students here seem
unanimous about their praise for the school.
‘It’s a fantastic school for the price. Very
inexpensive for the education offered,’ says
Josh, a communications major.”
PRIME LOCATION
BOSTON UNIVERSITY
“With a storied history, bustling sports culture
and more than 50 colleges in [close proxim-
ity], Boston is one of the most exciting places
in the country to be a student. ... Since BU
does not have a traditional campus like nearby
Northeastern or Harvard, the city is a major
part of every student’s day-to-day life. ...
Sarah, an international relations student, says,
‘Boston is one of the best things about BU.’”
CLASS LEADERS
Four top U.S. schools, according to Unigo
BARRY WINIKER/GETTY IMAGES (BROWN); KEN LUND (BYU); TED SOQUI/CORBIS (CALTECH); RICK FRIEDMAN/CORBIS (BU)
46
APRIL 2012
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