Gladwell explains that judging a school’s efficacy is oen at odds with judging its selectivity. Efficacy refers to the effectiveness in graduating the students the school accepted: in other words, the...

Gladwell explains that judging a school’s efficacy is oen at odds with judging its selectivity. Efficacy refers to the effectiveness in graduating the students the school accepted: in other words, the graduation rate. Selectivity refers to who is accepted in the first place, and therefore “quantifies how accomplished students are when they first arrive on campus”

Why do you think Gladwell claims that “[a]s a society, we probably care more about efficacy” … but “a bright highschool senior … may well care more about selectivity” (par. 12)? What added benefits are there to attending a highly selective, prestigious college?

What assumptions do we make about the value of a college education? What is its value to you personally and to society in general?