Advice for Aspiring Journalists and College Students

In the Green Room with The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Jeff Selingo

Jeff Selingo is vice president and editorial director of The Chronicle of Higher Education. Before moderating a panel on universities and cities, he sat down in the green room to talk about dinner parties, debt, and the eight-week old daughter waiting at home for him in Washington, D.C.

Q. What’s your first memory?

A. The first day of kindergarten. I did not go to preschool, so it was truly the first day of school for me, and I just remember walking into that room and being totally overwhelmed.

Q. What’s the right number of people for a dinner party?

A. Eight. It has to be even, so nobody feels left out of a conversation. Four seems too small, six seems too small, and 10 seems too big.

Q. What surprises you the most about reporting on higher education?

A. The lack of understanding that students and parents go into the college search process with. … I think too many people are wooed by the big names, and get their hearts set on a school very early on, and ignore some really good institutions. If people spent as much time as they do on some other activities in life searching for a college, I think they’d make different decisions.

Q. What keeps you up at night?

A. I have two girls now, one age two and one age two months, and their future keeps me up at night.

Q. What advice do you give aspiring journalists?

A. Get out! [Laughs.] I tell them to live and work in various parts of the country or world. I think you get a much better perspective as a journalist by living in small towns and out-of-the-way places, especially at a young age.

Q. What’s your drink of choice?

A. Non-alcoholic it’s an Arnold Palmer. And I love a good glass of wine-red wine, a Cabernet.

Q. What’s worth waiting in line for?

A. Nothing! I’m very impatient in line. I’m one of these people who will be at the supermarket, think I picked the wrong line, and move.

Q. Where does the name “Selingo” come from?

A. It’s Slovak, and probably at one time had another letter or two, when my great-grandparents came through Ellis Island.

Q. What did you do on the plane ride from D.C. to L.A.?

A. I watched Moneyball on my iPad, which was much better than I thought it would be. I’m a big baseball fan and read the book, but I wasn’t sure about the movie.

*Photo by Sarah Rivera.