Aiding Students, Buying Students: Financial Aid in America (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "This book tells the story of student aid in America..." (more)
Key Phrases: preferential packaging, basing aid, college observer, New York, College Board, World War (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

" . . . insightful . . . timely, readable, and even entertaining . . . Highly recommended." -- Choice, April 2006

". . . superb history of student-aid policies and practices in a dynamic environment influenced by social, cultural, economic, and political forces." -- Academe, September-October 2006

"Through an engaging narrative . . . the book connect past people and events to present ideas and practices." -- University Business, January 2006

Review

The media, higher education leaders, state and federal policy makers, administrators all will benefit from Wilkinson's analysis.
--Lawrence E. Gladieux, Former Washington Director, The College Board

. . . engaging and comprehensive . . . Bringing past, present, and future together in the concluding chapter, Wilkinson summarizes the lessons of three and one-half centuries and succinctly outlines the messages they hold for the continuing story of student financial aid in the United States.
--History of Education Quarterly

. . . insightful . . . Wilkinson's timely, readable, and even entertaining book contains rich appendixes, a glossary, notes, and bibliography. It deserves reading and discussion by college administrators, higher education officials, and public policy makers. . . . Highly recommended.
--Choice

. . . a superb history of student-aid policies and practices in a dynamic environment influenced by social, cultural, economic, and political forces.
-- Academe

With an understanding of budgetary processes and pressures, this book explores how aid developed in America and plays out for students and schools alike. Through an engaging narrative the book's author blends stories with data. Don't be daunted by the fact that the first chapter begins in 1641—this is not a dry recounting of dates and events. Rather, in noting the conflicting purposes of student aid, the book connects past people and events to present ideas and practices.
--University Business

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Vanderbilt University Press (January 5, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826515029
• ISBN-13: 978-0826515025
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,139,517 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clarifying mud, December 8, 2005

By	Robert M. Longsworth "Robert Longsworth" (Oberlin OH, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Providing financial assistance to students has always been a complicated matter for academic institutions, and the complications have grown increasingly impenetrable, partly because of the mixture of motives that lie behind the provision of such assistance. Rupert Wilkinson has carefully examined a wealth of historical information on this topic, and he has achieved an admirable understanding of what lies behind that information. Possessed of a graceful and lucid writing style, he has elucidated his subject splendidly. Oberlin College is one of the institutions that he has studied, and as a retired member of its faculty I can attest that his treatment has been thorough, fair, and illuminating.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Aiding Students, Buying Students by Rupert Wilkinson, November 12, 2005

By	anthony lanyi (College Park, MD United States) - See all my reviews

America faces growing economic and social inequities--a problem that threatens the roots of our democracy. I was delighted to find that Wilkinson focuses on the the impact of financial aid on actual educational opportunities faced by students from low-income and middle-income families. I was also glad that he got beyond the erroneous conventional wisdom of addressing this problem solely in terms of ethnic minorities, and that he ends this historical study with a review of the current situation and proposals for reform.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The ideal observer, November 3, 2005

By	Craig K. Comstock - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If we were to invent the ideal author for writing the history of American student aid, we might specify a person who knows the college scene very closely but has a distance on it, who has long nurtured a concern with the way elites are educated, and who writes with grace and vigor. Rupert Wilkinson began his career with a brilliant comparative study of how English elite schools such as Eton and Winchester prepared young men for leading roles in what was then an empire. He writes like an angel. As a professor of American studies at Sussex, Wilkinson had the opportunity to travel repeatedly to colleges in the U.S. to monitor his institution's exchange programs and as he went, to mine the archives on students aid and conduct searching interviews with officials. Aiding Students, Buying Students lays out a history engaging in itself and with obvious relevance to today's challenges in student aid.