College is different. It’s an emotional decision, one economists refer to as an “experience good.” We don’t know what we’re buying until after we experience it. Choosing the right college, the right major, or the right classes is difficult because we lack the tools to make bottom-line comparisons between options. As a result, the decision-making process is ill-informed, usually haphazard, and full of false starts. Unlike in the corporate world where a company’s prominence is evaluated in direct proportion to its earnings or stock price, colleges have no such clear standards. --> [[Prestige is measure by the students but not the school]] Nothing influences a student’s decision about where to enroll as much as the campus visit. Anyone who has ever made the rounds of college visits knows that the small things can sometimes gain monumental attention with teenagers—a rainy day, a bad tour guide, lousy food in the dining hall. companies are really hawking distinct experiences as much as services and products. How we feel about a product, our emotional bond, is the actual commodity for sale. There was no easy way to compare the experience of attending one college against another. “It’s about who you sleep with, who you eat with, your friends for life,” Kallay told me. “It’s a coming-of-age moment you can’t put numbers on.” the college choice often comes down to what students think as they stroll around the campus center or see inside a dorm room. “College, when it’s all said and done, it’s a bucket load of memories,” Kallay told the tour guides. “You are selling experiences.” If you read through the volumes of economic studies about the benefits of going to a selective school, they largely focus on one outcome: money. But if you ask graduates of top colleges about their undergraduate experiences, you’ll probably hear about something else: people.