In the minds of most people, the best colleges are those that are the most selective. The purpose of this document is to discover if students at more selective institutions have or take greater advantage of learning opportunities. Two independent datasets were used to research this idea. The first is the National Study of Student Learning (NSSL), a federally funded longitudinal investigation conducted in the mid-1990s. The second is the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), an annual survey of the extent to which first-year and senior students engage in purposeful educational activities. Taken together, these two national studies indicate that selectivity and effective educational practices are largely independent. Indeed, the academic selectivity of a college does not necessarily reflect the quality of the undergraduate education actually received as represented by effective educational practices.