This is a great speech to watch to help explain to a family or student why, counter intuitively, it may not be a good idea to choose the most selective college that you got into. Even if you don't have time for the whole speech, the first 10 minutes will really surprise you!

Key ideas:

Your relative position in a class determines how you feel about yourself and your likely success at achieving your goals.
As Human beings, we dramatically underestimate the costs of being at the bottom of a hierarchy.
Gladwell suggests to the audience at Google Zeitgeist that they should hire on the basis of Class Rank, and they should be indifferent to the institution that the student comes from.
When it comes to choosing which college you go to, you should NEVER choose the best institution you get into.