Michelle Kretzschmar blogs at DIY College Rankings on how to find a college with a focus on using data to make the best choices possible. After helping her son through the college search and baseball recruiting process, she created the DIY College Rankings Spreadsheet, which contains information on over 1,500 colleges that families can use to identify schools best for them. She offers an online class on using the spreadsheet, and the Introductory Lesson is free.
Michelle is also very interested in college graduation rates and has created a free list of 50-50 colleges that accept at least 50% of their applicants and have at least a 50% graduation rate. There aren't as many schools with at least a 50% graduation rate as you would think—but probably more that accept at least 50% of students than you would expect.
Michelle received her Bachelor of Arts in Plan II and History and Master of Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Austin with research focusing on high school dropouts.