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Indebted: How Families Make College Work at Any Cost
How the financial pressures of paying for college affect the lives and well-being of middle-class families
The struggle to pay for college is one of the defining features of middle-class life in America today. At kitchen tables all across the country, parents agonize over whether to burden their children with loans or to sacrifice their own financial security by taking out a second mortgage or draining their retirement savings. Indebted takes readers into the homes of middle-class families throughout the nation to reveal the hidden consequences of student debt and the ways that financing college has transformed family life.
Caitlin Zaloom gained the confidence of numerous parents and their college-age children, who talked candidly with her about stressful and intensely personal financial matters that are usually kept private. In this remarkable book, Zaloom describes the profound moral conflicts for parents as they try to honor what they see as their highest parental duty--providing their children with opportunity--and shows how parents and students alike are forced to take on enormous debts and gamble on an investment that might not pay off. What emerges is a troubling portrait of an American middle class fettered by the student finance complex--the bewildering labyrinth of government-sponsored institutions, profit-seeking firms, and university offices that collect information on household earnings and assets, assess family needs, and decide who is eligible for aid and who is not.
Superbly written and unflinchingly honest, Indebted breaks through the culture of silence surrounding the student debt crisis, revealing the unspoken costs of sending our kids to college.
The struggle to pay for college is one of the defining features of middle-class life in America today. At kitchen tables all across the country, parents agonize over whether to burden their children with loans or to sacrifice their own financial security by taking out a second mortgage or draining their retirement savings. Indebted takes readers into the homes of middle-class families throughout the nation to reveal the hidden consequences of student debt and the ways that financing college has transformed family life.
Caitlin Zaloom gained the confidence of numerous parents and their college-age children, who talked candidly with her about stressful and intensely personal financial matters that are usually kept private. In this remarkable book, Zaloom describes the profound moral conflicts for parents as they try to honor what they see as their highest parental duty--providing their children with opportunity--and shows how parents and students alike are forced to take on enormous debts and gamble on an investment that might not pay off. What emerges is a troubling portrait of an American middle class fettered by the student finance complex--the bewildering labyrinth of government-sponsored institutions, profit-seeking firms, and university offices that collect information on household earnings and assets, assess family needs, and decide who is eligible for aid and who is not.
Superbly written and unflinchingly honest, Indebted breaks through the culture of silence surrounding the student debt crisis, revealing the unspoken costs of sending our kids to college.
280 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2019
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782 people want to read
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October 2, 2019
There’s an important research question at the heat of Indebted, the new book on how families pay for college from NYU professor Caitin Zaloom: how are middle income families coping with the high price of college? This group admittedly tends to get shelter shrift from policy conversations, which focus closely on the lowest income individuals. But there is a real problem for families that are too rich to get Grant aid but too poor to amass substantial savings for college. It's a group that Oregon forestry professor James Fridley has correctly identified as falling into the valley of financial aid policy.
And it's in these stories that Indebted is most successful.
Where Indebted falters is in connecting the plight of middle income families to the larger dynamics creating this situation as well as the policy specifics of higher education. The latter most stands out for someone versed in the field. There are odd descriptors such as referring to the college board as a nonprofit focused on college access. There are also outright mistakes--the direct loan program gets described as starting in 2010, not in the 1990s. And it repeats incorrect talking points from the wall Street journal op ed page about the Obama administration taking over borrowing in 2010 when it simply stopped a federal program that out taxpayers on the hook for all but a few percentage points of losses.
Other things are just odd. Zaloom characterizes the completion of the FAFSA as an act of encouraging compliance among young adults. And in general the more "science" parts of the social science work just feel like a stretch.
It's fair to characterize some of those issues to nitpicking but they are indicative of a larger lack of the books ability to connect the stories to the big picture.
Where Indebted feels like a missed opportunity is using these compelling stories to connect to a broader discussion of what middle class life is like in America. Paying for college is ultimately a symptom of a much larger disease that has squeezed middle class families on all sides. College stands out for its price, but the forces of health care, housing, and child care are all doing similar things to eat up limited household resources while families strive for providing a lifestyle akin to what their families did.
These trends do get a mention in Indebted. And the place where they show up particularly well is in a chapter showing how 529s are more an attempt to instill aspirational values in affording college rather than a reality. But the connection to why this is happening societally never takes off.
This shows off in Zaloom's preferred way of framing the higher education specific issues as the college financing complex. It makes for a great villain akin to the forever war defense infrastructure in America. But the causes aren't well explained and sometimes blame is incorrectly assigned. For example Zaloom at one point says the Department of Education advocated for increasing loans as if it is some part of a rapacious plot to argue in favor of college. Absent is any discussion of the erosion of the Pell Grant in real terms due to broader conservative trends on spending at the federal and state levels.
The story of how we've assigned students and families ultimate responsibility for paying for college is the same story as the rise of the defined contribution 401k and the high deductible health insurance plan--the middle class is on its own.
Tressie McMillam Cottom's Lower Ed, which is cited in Indebted, shows how important this broader connection matters. Cottom's book too has captivating anecdotes that get at other issues that often perplex policy people--why do students enroll in for profit colleges given the price. But she successfully connects that story to the larger condition of black life in America as well as the importance of education culturally. Her terming of the education gospel fundamentally transforms how the reader understands the issue of higher education, for profits and black life. Doing so pulls the book outside of the higher education bubble.
By the end of Indebted it's hard to conclude what Zaloom actually thinks should be done about the issue. She bemoans how debt can constrain choices. But also talks in a chapter on Parent PLUS loans how the changes of credit check requirements there are an unfair denial of borrowing ability (check phrasing) she discusses how federal methodology excludes retirement savings and home equity as sources of assessing what families can afford, but pulling those items in would only serve to increase family contributions. She then closes with the same set of ideas about big college affordability plans that aren't wrong, but could have been in any book on the topic. And that's too bad because the examples and research questions are good ones, the broader picture just doesn't quite work.
And it's in these stories that Indebted is most successful.
Where Indebted falters is in connecting the plight of middle income families to the larger dynamics creating this situation as well as the policy specifics of higher education. The latter most stands out for someone versed in the field. There are odd descriptors such as referring to the college board as a nonprofit focused on college access. There are also outright mistakes--the direct loan program gets described as starting in 2010, not in the 1990s. And it repeats incorrect talking points from the wall Street journal op ed page about the Obama administration taking over borrowing in 2010 when it simply stopped a federal program that out taxpayers on the hook for all but a few percentage points of losses.
Other things are just odd. Zaloom characterizes the completion of the FAFSA as an act of encouraging compliance among young adults. And in general the more "science" parts of the social science work just feel like a stretch.
It's fair to characterize some of those issues to nitpicking but they are indicative of a larger lack of the books ability to connect the stories to the big picture.
Where Indebted feels like a missed opportunity is using these compelling stories to connect to a broader discussion of what middle class life is like in America. Paying for college is ultimately a symptom of a much larger disease that has squeezed middle class families on all sides. College stands out for its price, but the forces of health care, housing, and child care are all doing similar things to eat up limited household resources while families strive for providing a lifestyle akin to what their families did.
These trends do get a mention in Indebted. And the place where they show up particularly well is in a chapter showing how 529s are more an attempt to instill aspirational values in affording college rather than a reality. But the connection to why this is happening societally never takes off.
This shows off in Zaloom's preferred way of framing the higher education specific issues as the college financing complex. It makes for a great villain akin to the forever war defense infrastructure in America. But the causes aren't well explained and sometimes blame is incorrectly assigned. For example Zaloom at one point says the Department of Education advocated for increasing loans as if it is some part of a rapacious plot to argue in favor of college. Absent is any discussion of the erosion of the Pell Grant in real terms due to broader conservative trends on spending at the federal and state levels.
The story of how we've assigned students and families ultimate responsibility for paying for college is the same story as the rise of the defined contribution 401k and the high deductible health insurance plan--the middle class is on its own.
Tressie McMillam Cottom's Lower Ed, which is cited in Indebted, shows how important this broader connection matters. Cottom's book too has captivating anecdotes that get at other issues that often perplex policy people--why do students enroll in for profit colleges given the price. But she successfully connects that story to the larger condition of black life in America as well as the importance of education culturally. Her terming of the education gospel fundamentally transforms how the reader understands the issue of higher education, for profits and black life. Doing so pulls the book outside of the higher education bubble.
By the end of Indebted it's hard to conclude what Zaloom actually thinks should be done about the issue. She bemoans how debt can constrain choices. But also talks in a chapter on Parent PLUS loans how the changes of credit check requirements there are an unfair denial of borrowing ability (check phrasing) she discusses how federal methodology excludes retirement savings and home equity as sources of assessing what families can afford, but pulling those items in would only serve to increase family contributions. She then closes with the same set of ideas about big college affordability plans that aren't wrong, but could have been in any book on the topic. And that's too bad because the examples and research questions are good ones, the broader picture just doesn't quite work.
May 17, 2020
If you read this to figure out how to pay for college, you probably were disappointed. This was more of a what compels a person to put themselves and their families into debt book and how the system has changed to make it harder for students to get through college without debt.
I went to college in the early 1980s and because of my choice of college, graduated with no debt. My husband and I have put two children through college and have a third who will graduate next year and go on to pursue a master's degree. Paying for college is something that does involve the entire family and many families do not do it realistically for their circumstances. We have all been inculcated to believe that we must send our children to the best college, regardless of cost. We really need to weight our retirement needs against our child's needs and perhaps compromise so that we and our children are not saddled with crippling debt that affects our futures.
I don't have the answers. I just believe that we need to look at college realistically for our children.
I went to college in the early 1980s and because of my choice of college, graduated with no debt. My husband and I have put two children through college and have a third who will graduate next year and go on to pursue a master's degree. Paying for college is something that does involve the entire family and many families do not do it realistically for their circumstances. We have all been inculcated to believe that we must send our children to the best college, regardless of cost. We really need to weight our retirement needs against our child's needs and perhaps compromise so that we and our children are not saddled with crippling debt that affects our futures.
I don't have the answers. I just believe that we need to look at college realistically for our children.
October 4, 2019
This is a lot like Katherine Edin's $2 a day or like Arlie Russell Hochschild's Strangers in their own land--in depth interviews with families struggling to pay for college. It's really useful and eye-opening research.
September 13, 2019
“I define the middle class by their capacity to pay for college. I consider families to be middle class if the parents make too much money or too much wealth for their children to qualify for major federal higher education grants, and if they earn too little or possess insufficient wealth to pay full fare at most colleges.”
March 4, 2020
College affordability (or unaffordability) has been increasingly discussed in recent times and does not seem to be abating as costs go up, more loans are needed, and students upon graduating have jobs that do not pay as much to keep up with the interest. And that's where Zaloom's book hits hard with a critical exploration of how families try to afford college despite the legitimate obstacles in their way in general but also as a result of an educational financing system that works to undermine the middle class and poor families. Zaloom digs into this educational financing system, exposing how they prey on families' insecurities and vulnerabilities to put them in financially unstable situations while at the same time, casting a moral disdain for their inability to execute saving for college. She shows this in myriad ways including exploring how the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is presented a value-neutral opportunity for students to apply for support in attaining their college education but when scrutinized, the form makes a variety of assumptions about the student (comes from a traditional nuclear 2-parent family wherein finances are easily acquirable from parents who have no other obligations--financial or otherwise--and can financially provide income based on the FAFSA's arbitrary assumption about income). Elsewhere, Zaloom shows how families who are in more precarious financial situations are faulted and blamed for not being able to save for college. What I find powerful about Zaloom's work is how deftly she weaves the experiences of subjects she interviews with policies and financial data to show how compromised families become in trying to support their children. In many ways, it echoes the healthcare concerns of millions who indebted for large amounts of money for services they can't live without but are stuck between deciding if they can afford medicine or rent. For everyone thinking about college for themselves or for their children, this is a must-read book, not to convince folks to avoid college but to recognize the ways the education financing industry is likely to manipulate and complicate the process.
March 9, 2020
It’s an important book but not a great one. Academic writers often feel like they need to explain methodology, even when they are writing to a general audience. The result is one of the most painful first chapters in history.
The book picks up after that, and some startlingly scary information is shared. Only 3% of Americans utilized a 529 plan, but when colleges talk to potential students, they default to ‘why haven’t you utilized this?’ The reality is that the middle class could never ever save the money required for their children to attend college, so they are forced to take on alarming amounts of debt. Both parents and children take on life changing debt; it’s appalling.
The author suggests that the Australia model might be the best in class, and it’s apparent that change needs to come. But you have to fight through this book; it’s often dull when it needs to be passionate. I’m glad I read it, but it should be a much better book.
The book picks up after that, and some startlingly scary information is shared. Only 3% of Americans utilized a 529 plan, but when colleges talk to potential students, they default to ‘why haven’t you utilized this?’ The reality is that the middle class could never ever save the money required for their children to attend college, so they are forced to take on alarming amounts of debt. Both parents and children take on life changing debt; it’s appalling.
The author suggests that the Australia model might be the best in class, and it’s apparent that change needs to come. But you have to fight through this book; it’s often dull when it needs to be passionate. I’m glad I read it, but it should be a much better book.
November 11, 2019
The research behind this book really reaffirms what we already know, that the cost of higher education in the US is just about out of reach for all but the wealthiest. For the middle-class, especially African Americans, it is an immense struggle for a family (sometimes including extended family and community) to pull together the financing needed to attend a private university. While this used to be a cost that society found reasonable to almost fully fund, at least at public universities, in order to ensure a well-educated society, that is no longer the case, and the full cost is on the shoulders of the student and their family. Access to higher education is essential to maintaining the status of a middle-class family, but also increasingly unaffordable.
p. 190 "Creating the possibility of open futures is an essential part of the American project, but our country is not adequately supporting its citizens in this endeavor. On the contrary: Current policies undermine young adults and their families at a moment of vulnerability--when children are launching into their adult lives. The tectonic shift in who bears the burden of paying for college--from government to families--goes against long-established national principles. Government support for higher education was once transformative, fulfilling cultural ideals of access and opportunity. Today families bear the financial responsibility for college..."
p.192 "College, they argue, is not an 'investment' in private labor market value... this reigning political concept falsely reduces the value of education to pure economic outcomes. Instead, the value of higher education lies in the possibility of intellectual growth... [and] unconstrained prospects. These activists demand from their governments ... a right to the future, by which I mean the freedom and capacity to live full, decent lives and pursue their own interests without debts that tie them to inequities and errors of the past."
p.207 "The difficulties of finding students and parents who would open up about their financial situations showed me how important privacy was to middle-class families. Open discussion might reveal just how dependent middle-class families were on assistance, from the government and from each other, and just how dependent they were on the financial industry too. Dropping the veil of privacy, even momentarily... meant compromising their very middle-class status."
p.203-4 "a problem at the heart of the study: how families use finance to project independence and to generate it for young adults as well."
p. 190 "Creating the possibility of open futures is an essential part of the American project, but our country is not adequately supporting its citizens in this endeavor. On the contrary: Current policies undermine young adults and their families at a moment of vulnerability--when children are launching into their adult lives. The tectonic shift in who bears the burden of paying for college--from government to families--goes against long-established national principles. Government support for higher education was once transformative, fulfilling cultural ideals of access and opportunity. Today families bear the financial responsibility for college..."
p.192 "College, they argue, is not an 'investment' in private labor market value... this reigning political concept falsely reduces the value of education to pure economic outcomes. Instead, the value of higher education lies in the possibility of intellectual growth... [and] unconstrained prospects. These activists demand from their governments ... a right to the future, by which I mean the freedom and capacity to live full, decent lives and pursue their own interests without debts that tie them to inequities and errors of the past."
p.207 "The difficulties of finding students and parents who would open up about their financial situations showed me how important privacy was to middle-class families. Open discussion might reveal just how dependent middle-class families were on assistance, from the government and from each other, and just how dependent they were on the financial industry too. Dropping the veil of privacy, even momentarily... meant compromising their very middle-class status."
p.203-4 "a problem at the heart of the study: how families use finance to project independence and to generate it for young adults as well."
December 21, 2019
I enjoyed this book quite a bit, particularly the sections where Zaloom elaborated both the structure of the “student finance complex” and the ways in which it communicates morally-charged incentives through its assumptions. She really fleshed out the ways in which families assert their values, including a belief in realizing their children’s potential at all costs, by being willing to make tremendous financial sacrifices in paying for a college degree.
To the extent that she uses quantitative and qualitative data to point out how ridiculously expensive it has become to get a college degree, and how the current loan model is exacerbating the problem, I found the book to be compelling. As it progressed, however, she moved away from building this case and started speaking in sweeping platitudes about the importance of a traditional college education in creating thoughtful citizens. There’s nothing wrong with her points, per se, but it was a surprising deviation in style and construction from the previous chapters. Instead of driving her point home, she took her foot off the gas pedal to make a related but separate argument, and it felt like a missed opportunity to craft a laser-focused argument.
A solid, thoughtful take on our student debt crisis that anyone in that space should spend some time grappling with.
To the extent that she uses quantitative and qualitative data to point out how ridiculously expensive it has become to get a college degree, and how the current loan model is exacerbating the problem, I found the book to be compelling. As it progressed, however, she moved away from building this case and started speaking in sweeping platitudes about the importance of a traditional college education in creating thoughtful citizens. There’s nothing wrong with her points, per se, but it was a surprising deviation in style and construction from the previous chapters. Instead of driving her point home, she took her foot off the gas pedal to make a related but separate argument, and it felt like a missed opportunity to craft a laser-focused argument.
A solid, thoughtful take on our student debt crisis that anyone in that space should spend some time grappling with.
September 8, 2021
This is an important subject but ultimately this was a book of missed opportunities.
I think the author sometimes loses where she is going in her own book. The interviews with the families are very interesting but we don’t spend a lot of time with them. Instead, Zaloom mentions a brief look at the interviewees and talks at length about what she takes from what they said. I would have much rather heard more from the families and heard about how they perceive their situations. I think it's made worse because some of her tangents also tend to wander for pages at length (there is one section where she describes what a ‘burden’ is for multiple paragraphs).
Some of the information she gives or situations she describes in the book are very dated (at times decades old) but the way she describes them you would think they are current.
She also avoids what I think are pretty obvious questions. Is it worth it to go to college? Aren’t there other options and avenues? Are private schools worth the price tag?
I think the author sometimes loses where she is going in her own book. The interviews with the families are very interesting but we don’t spend a lot of time with them. Instead, Zaloom mentions a brief look at the interviewees and talks at length about what she takes from what they said. I would have much rather heard more from the families and heard about how they perceive their situations. I think it's made worse because some of her tangents also tend to wander for pages at length (there is one section where she describes what a ‘burden’ is for multiple paragraphs).
Some of the information she gives or situations she describes in the book are very dated (at times decades old) but the way she describes them you would think they are current.
She also avoids what I think are pretty obvious questions. Is it worth it to go to college? Aren’t there other options and avenues? Are private schools worth the price tag?
March 26, 2020
It's ok. differs from some other books about college $ issues by reporting in some depth on interviews with specific families as they go through the process.
if you're unfamiliar with the issues, you might rate it more highly. An example of my besetting vice as a chooser of nonfiction books at the library -- title/subtitle catch my eye ("oh, i'm interested in that subject"), and then I read it and blame the author for covering ground I've either lived through as a parent of two ex-college-students or work through as a college teacher who hears from students all the time about $ concerns.
Other contextual factor in interpreting my blah reaction is that I read it during COVID-19 pandemic. Some stuff like "the FAFSA sure is a pain in the butt to complete" is true but just not really grabbing me at this point as a top priority social issue.
if you're unfamiliar with the issues, you might rate it more highly. An example of my besetting vice as a chooser of nonfiction books at the library -- title/subtitle catch my eye ("oh, i'm interested in that subject"), and then I read it and blame the author for covering ground I've either lived through as a parent of two ex-college-students or work through as a college teacher who hears from students all the time about $ concerns.
Other contextual factor in interpreting my blah reaction is that I read it during COVID-19 pandemic. Some stuff like "the FAFSA sure is a pain in the butt to complete" is true but just not really grabbing me at this point as a top priority social issue.
January 6, 2022
Easily one of the worst books on this subject I have ever read. At each turn of the page I kept hoping for some salient and cogent point. I had hoped for some analytical critique of the student loan system and the attendant debt load. Instead, I was subjected to a rambling dissembling screed on social equity and the need to send otherwise unqualified borrowers to college on the taxpayer’s dime. The author actually disregarded any prudential oversight of the student loan program. She never discussed the root causes of the rise in college costs, not did she offer any meaningful alternatives. Her case studies showcased people who took out more debt than they could afford.
The student loan fiasco is deserving of a cogent, thoughtful critique. This turkey of a book certainly does not provide it. I am really glad I took it out of the library and did not spend good money on it.
The student loan fiasco is deserving of a cogent, thoughtful critique. This turkey of a book certainly does not provide it. I am really glad I took it out of the library and did not spend good money on it.
October 20, 2019
The highlight here was her argument about college education as a moral imperative for middle-class Americans. She draws from Zelizer to examine how the "pricelessness" of children's development conflicts with the process of financing higher education. But if you are familiar with some of the literature on college and social class, she offers a lot of repetitive summary without adding many new insights. And race was wholly underutilized in her argument. She has a separate chapter on race, which focuses on black families, but the rest of the book barely discusses it. This is one of my pet peeves - it's like the author is checking off "I covered race" without substantially examining whiteness, implicitly leaving white families unmarked.
February 9, 2020
Meh. This would have been better as a magazine article as a book. Once you’ve been exposed to the central premise (families view paying for college in moral terms and almost as a family compact as opposed to just a financial transaction with the college lending complex), there is not that much new or interesting here. A pretty good overview of things like the FAFSA and 529 plans and the importance to families of developing potential, but nothing earth-shattering or new. In terms of the anthropological study, compares poorly with books like Elizabeth Currid-Halket’s The sum of small things or Brooke Harrington’s Wealth Without Borders, which do a much better job of describing individual stories while connecting them to the broader trends the books are examining.
May 24, 2024
As someone who as recently had to think about the wonderful concept of student debt for the first time in decades for my M*A, this book felt too timely.
The author does yeoman's work talking about the thing on every families mind-the cost of college. In working through the many expenses, implicit and explicit, that are faced by young adults, the author carefully draws out the moral instructions associated with the question of how to pay for college/how this system (like every system in our country, uniquely punishes the poor (USA USA USA).
I would have appreciated a chapter on those who don't have to pay-children of professors, those in service academies etc. or a discussion of the choice of major/concentration played into the decision made with regard to college choice.
The author does yeoman's work talking about the thing on every families mind-the cost of college. In working through the many expenses, implicit and explicit, that are faced by young adults, the author carefully draws out the moral instructions associated with the question of how to pay for college/how this system (like every system in our country, uniquely punishes the poor (USA USA USA).
I would have appreciated a chapter on those who don't have to pay-children of professors, those in service academies etc. or a discussion of the choice of major/concentration played into the decision made with regard to college choice.
December 31, 2019
A thoughtful book, well researched and presented. Given the number of her case studies I would have liked to hear more from the group, esp. from men like me; divorced professionals who have kids looking to them almost exclusively to finance their college expenses. Also, I would like to know more about the various types of loans out there, and the pluses and minuses of the loan products. Finally, she does very little to explore scholarship opportunities and how kids can take advantage of merit scholarships from many sources.
December 18, 2022
I feel like a lot of the information, not including actual numbers, is very common information and as to be expected when talking about student loan debt. There were a few interesting facts that I learned based off of this book
Middle class families are more likely to make many life choices to keep their kids in a middle class life which could include planning picking a house in the right school district
Middle and lower class families are more likely to overextend themselves to family in hopes of making a non verbal pact to help when needed
Middle class families are more likely to make many life choices to keep their kids in a middle class life which could include planning picking a house in the right school district
Middle and lower class families are more likely to overextend themselves to family in hopes of making a non verbal pact to help when needed
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 25, 2019
This book explores through extensive interviews the impact that student debt is having on the lives of individual middle and lower middle class families. The book personalizes the impact in ways that averages and analytics cannot. It also speaks to the inequities of the system when it comes to marginalized families. A very good read. It also makes you realize how college is creating inter generational dependence not the independence that it once did. An important observation.
March 21, 2020
The writing in this starts out clunky but it gets better as the book goes on. Zaloom interviews families who have all taken out some sort of loans to send their children to college. I would have liked to see how the families got on once their children finished college and they had to start repaying the loans, but the study only covers how families afford higher education during the college years. Still an interesting read.
October 12, 2019
As the parent of a high school senior, I find the topic particularly interesting, but the ground the author covers is well-worn for anyone who has been paying attention to the issue. The author is an anthropologist, and she approaches her subjects - 80 families who are preparing for or engaged in paying for college - as such, delving into the middle-class shibboleths that make us feel we must send our children to the "right" schools even when doing so will lead to a lifetime of debt service. What I thought was missing was more in-depth discussion of our status-based, largely fake meritocracy, including comparison of outcomes for students who graduate from a more affordable (but still quite pricey) state university, vs a no-name-to-middling private college that might be devoted to excellent undergraduate instruction, vs a ranked school with national name recognition. It may not be very rational to choose neighboring Transylvania University, which doesn't have a large endowment (total tuition + residential cost: $54,400) over University of Kentucky (total in-state tuition + residential cost: $29,590 - INSANE for a mediocre public university), but if you can get in, it might be rational to choose, say, USC (list price $77,500) if the school's endowment can bring the price down to a Transy-ish level and you will end up with a degree that opens more doors. It is not just superstition or tenderheartedness that makes parents want to place their children in the "right" schools: it is awareness of how society favors students who attend the "right" schools even when such attendance is often more representative of connections and status than of ability. I doubt I would have been in the running for the graduate school scholarships I received if I hadn't had a well-known undergrad college on my resume. I wasn't smarter than most of my classmates, I just had a fancy diploma. Still, it is a good basic overview for a general audience.
December 6, 2019
Quite frankly, this book scared the shit out of me. As a father of almost college-scouting kids, it really is scary how much college costs these days as well as how difficult the "school debt industrial complex" makes it to navigate through. I'm glad I read it, though, and it will definitely open my eyes as we start preparing for what paying for college will look like.
July 4, 2021
An excellent ethnography of how middle-class families in the 2010s negotiate the college finance system.
It also has a lot of useful things to say about how the experience of sending one's kids to college (and paying for it) has become such a large part of what it culturally means to be middle class in the US.
It also has a lot of useful things to say about how the experience of sending one's kids to college (and paying for it) has become such a large part of what it culturally means to be middle class in the US.
October 29, 2022
Clear and compelling: families knowingly go into massive debt to support their children's higher education because they cannot bring themselves to devalue their children's potential. Also has strong analysis of the role of education in society: to create a democratically engaged citizenry, or to supply a lucrative workforce?
November 3, 2019
A necessary and important read, but one that I nevertheless felt might have benefited from a few more case studies. Zaloom does an excellent job exploring the morality behind what she terms the 'student financial complex.'
January 23, 2020
The best book out there dealing with the inherent problems, inequalities, and long-term consequences of our higher education funding problems. Insightful, yet frustrating Zaloom’s detailed exploration of families financing college is the perfect portrait of this current, problematic system.
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June 11, 2022A practical and helpful must read for parents who have walked and structured a college path for their children. Your work beautifully articulates the complex anxiety of college affordability. Appreciate you much Dr. Zaloom.
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September 24, 2019I just read a thesis. I was hoping, based on The New Yorker review, for something a little more accessible and with more stories and not platitudes about higher education.
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November 1, 2019378.362 Z22 2019
November 3, 2019
Although I'm not American and I'm no longer a student, I found the book very interesting. I especially like the examples and case studies that help to explain complex family situations. Well written.
November 9, 2019
Provocative. Talked about the middle class culture of paying for your children to go to college, and how government policies have shaped that. Interesting!
November 21, 2019
Illuminating and familiar all at once
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