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Sara Goldrick-Rab

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

by Sara Goldrick-Rab (Author)

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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.

ISBN-10

022640434X
ISBN-13

978-0226404349
Edition

Illustrated
Publisher

University of Chicago Press
Publication date

September 13, 2016
Language

English
Dimensions

6.25 x 1 x 9.5 inches
Print length

368 pages
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Honestly one of the most exciting books I've read, because [Goldrick-Rab has] solutions. It's a manual that I'd recommend to anyone out there, if you're a parent, if you're a teacher, if you're a student."
-- Trevor Noah ― The Daily Show

"Bracing and well-argued, this study not only puts faces on the students who struggle to earn college degrees; it also serves as a warning that university study is rapidly becoming a privilege reserved for only the wealthy. Necessary reading for anyone concerned about the fate of American higher education." ― Kirkus Reviews

"What if we rebuilt the financial aid system around the ways that students actually live? Sara Goldrick-Rab takes an admirable shot in Paying the Price. . . . As a contribution to our understanding of financial aid and its impact on low-income students, it's remarkably useful. . . . Goldrick-Rab's significant contribution here is building policy around actual students. It's easy to postulate how an ideal student should behave, or to build a policy on the assumption that every student is 18 years old, attending full-time, living on campus, and receiving ample family support. It's much harder to build policy on the complicated lives that actual students actually live. It's to her credit that Goldrick-Rab goes into the weeds. Here’s hoping that people who control state appropriations hear her." ― Inside Higher Ed

"A detailed look at shortsighted and insufficient policies and the specific havoc they wreak on specific students." -- John Warner ― Chicago Tribune

"Ultimately, though, Goldrick-Rab argues that we need a new system, 'a Financial Aid 2.0 that is based on accessible and affordable high-quality public higher education.' Rather than offering more financial aid to keep up with rising prices, this future system would make the first few years of college, or the initial degree, free. Tennessee already offers tuition-free community college to all, and other states are considering similar programs, so this final recommendation provides a glimmer of hope that investing in our own young people is something a divided nation might eventually agree on. Paying the Price is an invaluable resource, chock-full of data and empathy, to bring to that effort." ― Yes Magazine

"Goldrick-Rab's important book should be read by policymakers, students, and parents. She explains clearly how access to college has been narrowed by rising costs, how elected officials have dodged their responsibility to maintain access, and what we must do to save the American Dream--the promise that all have equal opportunity to succeed."
-- Diane Ravitch

“A hardworking group of young Americans is struggling with regular hunger, periodic homelessness, constant stress, and unrelenting exhaustion—all this while trying to master organic chemistry, business accounting, and British literature. Today’s college students face unprecedented costs to achieve undergraduate degrees. Many of these costs are not reflected on any balance sheet at the university’s financial aid office. Sara Goldrick-Rab’s Paying the Price: College Costs, Financial Aid and the Betrayal of the American Dream offers the first truly comprehensive accounting of the toll extracted from a generation of middle and working class Americans who cannot possibly keep pace with the expense of attending college. Goldrick-Rab maps the landscape of America’s college affordability crisis and gives that crisis a human face. She shows us how the system crushes dreams and offers practical solutions for fixing the mess we have made. Goldrick-Rab argues, ‘The first step in addressing the college affordability crisis is taking the problem seriously.’ Anyone who is serious about addressing this crisis must read this book.” -- Melissa Harris-Perry

"Paying the Price is an urgent and necessary text. Through rigorous research and careful analysis, Sara Goldrick-Rab shows how the American Dream is structurally compromised by the exorbitant costs of higher education and a thoroughly dysfunctional financial aid system. With texture and subtlety, Goldrick-Rab spotlights the journeys of students whose road to educational access and social mobility is obstructed by the current crisis. Equally important, she offers a practical and progressive action plan for creating a more fair and just system." -- Marc Lamont Hill, author of Nobody: Casualties of America's War on the Vulnerable, From Ferguson to Flint and Beyond

"Paying the Price is a must-read not only for policymakers but also for anyone wanting a better grasp of our nation's college financial aid system. What started out as the promise to enable hardworking students to achieve their hopes of living the American Dream by improving their lot through higher education has morphed over the past five decades into an unwieldy system betraying that very ideal at huge costs to society. Sara Goldrick-Rab thoroughly reviews the evolution and demise of that once noble system, then proposes solutions after equitably addressing both sides of the financial argument. Pulling from case studies of 3,000 students, she shares the personal stories of six very different students to poignantly prove that our present system is failing us. We must act now so that the 45 million young people who will turn 18 in the next 10 years don’t face the tough choices that 75 percent of Americans currently confront when they come to grips with the fact that they can’t afford college." -- Eduardo Padron, Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient

"Goldrick-Rab's narrative puts a face to the national higher education cost crisis. The students she profiles through her research represent thousands of individuals who pursue a degree in pursuit of social mobility and the American Dream, only to find themselves unable to make ends meet and often drowning in debt. By personalizing our country’s failed higher education policies, this book takes readers beyond national headlines and statistics and into individual lives. Goldrick-Rab's scholarship fills a critical void in our conversations about the realities of financial aid policy in the face of rapidly rising tuition and important poignant reminder of the ongoing negative impact of state appropriation reductions in this era." ― F. King Alexander, president, Louisiana State University

About the Author

Sara Goldrick-Rab is coeditor of Reinventing Financial Aid: Charting a New Course to College Affordability and has written on education issues for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. She is a recipient of the Early Career Award from the American Educational Research Association and the Atlantic, Slate, and NPR have covered her work. She founded the Wisconsin HOPE Lab, the nation’s first research laboratory aimed at making college affordable, and is a noted influence on the development of both federal and state higher education policies. Dr. Goldrick-Rab is professor of higher education policy and sociology at Temple University. Follow her on Twitter @saragoldrickrab.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Chicago Press; Illustrated edition (September 13, 2016)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 022640434X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0226404349
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.54 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1 x 9.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,454,605 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #918 in Education Funding (Books)
- #9,643 in Personal Finance (Books)
- #11,723 in Higher & Continuing Education

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WATCH SARA GOLDRICK-RAB ON THE DAILY SHOW WITH TREVOR NOAH!

http://www.cc.com/video-clips/ah40j7/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-sara-goldrick-rab----paying-the-price--for-higher-education

website: SaraGoldrickRab.com

Short video preview of the book: https://youtu.be/JXER0MQGadE

Twitter: @saragoldrick-rab

Sara Goldrick-Rab is Professor of Higher Education Policy & Sociology at Temple University, and Founder of the Wisconsin HOPE Lab, the nation’s only translational research laboratory seeking ways to make college more affordable.

Dr. Goldrick-Rab’s commitment to scholar-activism is evidenced by her broad profile of research and writing dissecting the intended and unintended consequences of the college-for-all movement in the United States. In more than a dozen experimental, longitudinal, and mixed-methods studies, she has examined the efficacy and distributional implications of financial aid policies, welfare reform, transfer practices, and a range of interventions aimed at increasing college attainment among marginalized populations. She provides extensive service to local, state, and national communities, working directly with governors and state legislators to craft policies to make college more affordable, collaborating with non-profit organizations seeking to examine the effects of their practices, and providing technical assistance to Congressional staff, think tanks, and membership organizations throughout Washington, DC.

Many professional organizations and foundations have honored Dr. Goldrick-Rab for her work. In 2013, she was invited to testify before the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, chaired by Senators Tom Harkin and Lamar Alexander. In 2014, she received the Early Career Award from the American Educational Research Association, and in 2015 she graduated from the William T. Grant Foundation’s five-year-long Faculty Scholars program. She was named one of POLITICO's Top 50 thinkers shaping American politics in 2016.

Dr. Goldrick-Rab is widely published in venues such as Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Sociology of Education, Review of Educational Research, and Teachers College Record, and in 2014, Harvard Education Press released her co-edited book, Reinventing Financial Aid: Charting a New Course to College Affordability. In September 2016, the University of Chicago published her latest book, Paying the Price: College Costs, Financial Aid, and the Betrayal of the American Dream.

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Top reviews from the United States

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Naomi Krakower

Fundamentally changed our thinking on the student experience.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 17, 2022

Verified Purchase

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. I was lucky enough to meet Sara Goldrick-Rab on one of her campus tours and was deeply impressed with her presentation and her scholarship.

This book absolutely changed the game in terms of student need and the stories we have told ourselves as a nation about debt, equity, access, and the educational element of the American Dream. If you haven’t read Paying the Price, you should.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Andy H.

This one book can stop the storm

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 19, 2016

Verified Purchase

We in higher education have been talking about and feeling the impact of the "perfect storm" (decreased state and federal funding, increased tuition and fees, and more need for college degrees) for almost two decades. We have tinkered around the issues with technology, various business models, and financial aid processes without much success. I think it's time we try something other than tinkering. Dr. Goldrick-Rab's recommendations in this book are insightful and based on evidence, so let's stop tinkering and fix the issues. We have many of the answers in this book. As Dr. Goldrick-Rab writes, “We, as a society, recognize that a person without a high school degree can hardly survive in the United States, so we do not attach a price to public high school (…). Yet when it comes to college, we charge even the very poorest among us as much as $15,000 a year.” We as a nation can do better than this -- we must. This one book can stop the storm.

8 people found this helpful

Helpful

Susan R. Singer

Scholarly and engaging

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 17, 2017

Verified Purchase

Sara Goodrick-Rab and colleagues six year longitudinal study of low income students making their way through the financial maze of college completion is a must read for anyone concerned about the future of higher education. Her data-rich analysis situates the work in the changes in state and federal policy over a half a century and how decreasing state funds to our public institutions means that it is no longer feasible for students to work and pay their way through college. She challenges many assumptions about why low income students do not complete college and offers a way forward. A practical, clear-eyed vision for how our nation can benefit from the talent of all who aspire to obtain a college degree, regardless of family background and socio-economic status.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

KSukEDUC

Dr. Goldrick-Rab sheds light on the true story-the students' story-in the struggle for education and economic empowerment in US.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 18, 2017

Verified Purchase

As a faculty member of a local community college, I see firsthand what Dr. Goldrick-Rab discusses in her book. The study data along with the testimonials and experiences offered by the students featured throughout bring true light to the issue of economic struggle in our Higher Education system in the United States. Dr. Goldrick-Rab focuses on the quantity of students affected by this issue, but more importantly, she focuses on the quality or lack therof of their lives and their education because of the impacts of the issue. It is a wonderful read, and I strongly advise that more educators and legislators read and listen to the advice for change that Dr. Goldrick-Rab offers in this powerful book!

One person found this helpful

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Nicholas

The honest truth of higher education head on

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 9, 2020

Verified Purchase

The book was well organized and follow a case study of students in different backgrounds and life situations to put into perspective the cost of attending college and how hard it is to maneuver around an outdated financial aid system.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

W. Carson Byrd

Going Hungry and in Debt for a College Degree

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 15, 2017

Verified Purchase

An important volume that humanizes the struggle of today's college students to pursue not only their education, but their life dreams in the face of dwindling financial support and demoralizing popular narratives of "coddled college students." A must read for people who are trying to further understand why attaining a college degree is increasingly difficult, and the lengths students go to pursue their degrees. From housing and food insecurity to mounting student loan debt, Sara Goldrick-Rab provides an in-depth examination of what college students face when their support systems are eroding away to nothing.

One person found this helpful

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Karen

EVERYONE Needs to Read This Boook!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 6, 2016

Verified Purchase

Paying the Price is absolutely one of the most important books written about higher education. I have been a professor for 25 years in public education and have worked with students who struggle every single day due to issues related to their financial situation. This is not just a problem for educators and students, it affects every facet of our society. Everyone - not just those of us that work in school systems or in universities, and not just college students and their families- but EVERY AMERICAN needs to read this book.

One person found this helpful

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S C

Desire for more Tangible Solutions

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 3, 2018

Verified Purchase

The book was an attempt at sharing the very real issues of paying for college, but simply falls short of the compelling public interest in creating affordable higher education. Good data and easy to read, I just wanted more.

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