Hacking College began with the recognition that higher education is both powerful and deeply confusing. The promise of transformation collides with a maze of policies, jargon, and structures that often leave students — and their families — navigating on their own. Our work brings together three different vantage points on this shared problem: journalism, academic leadership, and student advising.

Scott Carlson has spent more than two decades covering higher education at The Chronicle of Higher Education, where he is a senior writer focusing on college finance and management, the path from college to work, and how institutions can adapt to social, economic, and cultural change. He has been the author of numerous lengthy reports on the future of work, the threats to the university business model, and the financial restructuring of universities, among other topics. In his journalism and his weekly column — The Edge —  he tells the stories of students trying to make sense of college, of faculty wrestling with shifting expectations, of leaders tasked with balancing tradition and innovation, and how outside forces are creating new fault lines in higher ed. His work with Hacking College continues his commitment to bringing unseen ideas and innovations to the surface.

Ned Laff has worked inside colleges and universities for more than thirty-five years in both administrative and faculty roles. His work has spanned curriculum development, self-designed majors, general education reform, mentoring programs, and the creation of centers that integrate advising, career development, and student success. He has broad interests in improving the quality of undergraduate education and revitalizing the liberal arts.

He approaches higher education as both a system and a community, with a keen eye for how design and structure impact real students. Ned’s focus has always been on helping students make meaning out of their education.  He has a special interest in the role mentoring plays in helping students design and integrate their educational, professional, and personal goals into a successful undergraduate education — not just accumulating credits but integrating learning with their personal lives.

Ruby Matheny brings a student-centered lens shaped by years in career advising, alumni engagement, and student-success coaching based on design thinking. She has extensive experience building out internship programs, employer relationships, and curriculum and systems to scale credit-bearing internship experiences. She has worked directly with students and professionals to connect academic choices to personal goals, professional growth, and real-world impact. Ruby translates complex systems into strategies students can actually use, while also challenging institutions to see how their policies play out on the ground. Her coaching and workshops help both students and higher ed professionals imagine more intentional pathways forward.

Together, we created Hacking College as both a book and a platform for change. It is not a prescription or a single solution. It is a set of tools, stories, and strategies for seeing higher education clearly and navigating it with intention. For students, it’s a way to understand the hidden rules and design an experience that actually matters. For college administrators, faculty, and advisers and mentors, it’s an invitation to view the institution through students’ eyes and to help students make choices that create real value from the college experience.