This week, high-school seniors across America are anxiously checking their mailboxes, praying for the thick envelopes that indicate they’ve won a spot at their dream schools.

But getting into some of the most prestigious colleges and universities in the country can be tough. Harvard University, whose undergraduate college is the most selective in the country, according to government data analyzed by Niche.com, accepts just 5.8% of its applicants, the college ranking, scholarship and search site found.

Compare the hardest schools to get into with the schools that have the best return on investment. Terrence Horan

The good news: Prestige and selectivity are not all that matters when it comes to choosing the right college. And while this concept may be difficult to convey to 17- and 18-year-olds (and their parents), experts say students should consider more than brand name when choosing a school.

“So many kids pick schools because they’re highly ranked and they [visited] and there was an unbelievable information session,” said Andy Lockwood, a Long Island–based financial aid consultant, but “none of that has anything to do with how well that school is going to set you up after college.”

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For that kind of information, families can turn to other sources. PayScale.com, Money Magazine, the Department of Education and others provide data such as average student loan debt, graduation rate and post-college salary prospects, so students can get a sense of where they’ll find the best return on investment. There is some overlap between these two lists: four schools — Princeton University, Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the California Institute of Technology — make both Nice’s ranking of most selective schools and PayScale’s list of schools delivering the best returns on investment.

“We’re talking about one of the most expensive expenditures for most families,” says Mark Kantrowitz, a financial aid expert and publisher of Cappex.com, a college scholarship and search website. “When you’re spending that amount of money you have to ask, ‘What are the returns? What are the outcomes?’ ”

Kantrowitz notes that students can often get a very good education at their in-state public college for much less than a more prestigious private school. Typically the degrees that do the best on ROI lists are engineering-focused credentials from the most selective schools, he says, because graduates’ salaries tend to be higher. But when you consider the actual rate of return — or the net price students pay at the school versus the outcome — those same degrees do much better when from in-state public colleges. That’s because graduates of those public institutions earn only slightly less than those at their private peers and their degrees are so much less costly.

What’s more, depending on what a student wants to study, a name-brand school may not do much to boost their earning potential research shows. Students who study science, technology, engineering and math, benefit little salary-wise from an Ivy League degree, whereas graduates of business, liberal arts or other programs that benefit from networks may get a boost from attending a name-brand school, according to a recent study from economists at San Diego State and Brigham Young universities.

At this time of year, Lockwood talks almost daily with families grappling with whether to shell out or take on tens of thousands of dollars in loans to attend what seems like a dream school instead of opting for a cheaper college, he says. The families are often flooded with brochures, text messages and other types of campaigns trying to convince them that a given college is the best option. “It’s really hardcore direct marketing,” he says. These kinds of efforts ultimately push more students to attend, which helps boosts the school in the traditional rankings that are based less on financial factors and more on things like selectivity and spending per student, which then make it seem like a more attractive place to go, creating a “vicious cycle,” Lockwood says.

To make a more rational decision free from those influences, Lockwood suggests parents and students ask to see the career office at colleges they visit and consult data on how successful the schools are at helping students land jobs or spots in top graduate programs.

For Lockwood, it’s hard to justify spending $40,000 more a year for college just because of a brand name, given that so much of a student’s success after college depends on the students themselves and the work they’ve put in. Or as Kantrowitz puts it: “The distinguishing thing between colleges is not in the faculty, [amd] it’s not in the facilities; it’s in the students.” And most colleges, he says, do manage to attract a high-caliber student body, regardless of the price.