Paying the Price: College Costs, Financial Aid, and the Betrayal of the American Dream

Description

If you are a young person, and you work hard enough, you can get a college
degree and set yourself on the path to a good life, right? Not necessarily,
says Sara Goldrick-Rab, and with Paying the Price, she shows in damning detail
exactly why. Quite simply, college is far too expensive for many people today,
and the confusing mix of federal, state, institutional, and private financial
aid leaves countless students without the resources they need to pay for it.
Drawing on an unprecedented study of 3,000 young adults who entered public
colleges and universities in Wisconsin in 2008 with the support of federal aid
and Pell Grants, Goldrick-Rab reveals the devastating effect of these
shortfalls. Half the students in the study left college without a degree,
while less than 20 percent finished within five years. The cause of their
problems, time and again, was lack of money. Unable to afford tuition, books,
and living expenses, they worked too many hours at outside jobs, dropped
classes, took time off to save money, and even went without adequate food or
housing. In many heartbreaking cases, they simply left school—not with a
degree, but with crippling debt. Goldrick-Rab combines that shocking data with
devastating stories of six individual students, whose struggles make clear the
horrifying human and financial costs of our convoluted financial aid policies.
America can fix this problem. In the final section of the book, Goldrick-Rab
offers a range of possible solutions, from technical improvements to the
financial aid application process, to a bold, public sector–focused “first
degree free” program. What’s not an option, this powerful book shows, is doing
nothing, and continuing to crush the college dreams of a generation of young
people. Read more

Features:

Product Details:

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Chicago Press; Illustrated edition (September 13, 2016)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 022640434X
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 49
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.54 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1 x 9.5 inches
• Best Sellers Rank: #1,409,975 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #752 in Education Funding (Books) #10,565 in Personal Finance (Books) #11,528 in Higher & Continuing Education
• #752 in Education Funding (Books)
• #10,565 in Personal Finance (Books)