The college search should find the place where a student has the best chance of thriving over four years and in the chapters that follow.
I have spent more than 25 years as an investor focused on corporate reorganizations. We are at a moment in time where the business model of college is being tested and, in some cases, breaking. Prices have risen faster than anyone has explained the value, and families are rightly asking harder questions.
I created Lambert’s Grove to help families navigate this time period and to maximize the chance that their student attends a school they will thrive at. The flip side of this is minimizing the risk of transfer, a fifth year, or non-completion. Our platform helps you understand both sides: the experience a student actually has, and the institution’s financial strength and staying power. We fingerprint 413 colleges across 13 dimensions of the student experience.
I have taken more than one of my own kids through the college process. What struck me, my family and the families around us, was how much of the search ran on prestige and credentials: rankings, published admission rates, a school’s name. My own kids would stop at a Google search and render a verdict based on published acceptance rate. It was disheartening. I attended a wonderful liberal arts college and an “elite” graduate school. With the benefit of 30 years of hindsight I have a sense of what matters, and it isn’t the published acceptance rate. It’s the friends you rely on for a lifetime, the mentors who knew you and wrote that important recommendation, the sense of belonging that stays with you.
More than anything, I wanted my kids to find a community where they would be known and valued by their peers and professors, and encouraged to rise to their potential and lead healthy, productive lives.
Lambert’s Grove is built to help every family navigate this process.
Beau Lescott, founder
P.S. Lambert’s Grove is named after a clearing on a wooded path to one of my family’s favorite beaches. The sunlight breaks through the foliage in streaks. It’s a quiet place to think. A big decision deserves one.