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    Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy
    Unavailable
    Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy
    Unavailable
    Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy
    Ebook288 pages3 hours

    Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy

    By Tressie McMillan Cottom

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook


    “The best book yet on the complex lives and choices of for-profit students.”
    The New York Times Book Review

    More than two million students are enrolled in for-profit colleges, from the small family-run operations to the behemoths brandished on billboards, subway ads, and late-night commercials. These schools have been around just as long as their bucolic not-for-profit counterparts, yet shockingly little is known about why they have expanded so rapidly in recent years—during the so-called Wall Street era of for-profit colleges.

    In Lower Ed Tressie McMillan Cottom—a bold and rising public scholar, herself once a recruiter at two for-profit colleges—expertly parses the fraught dynamics of this big-money industry to show precisely how it is part and parcel of the growing inequality plaguing the country today. McMillan Cottom discloses the shrewd recruitment and marketing strategies that these schools deploy and explains how, despite the well-documented predatory practices of some and the campus closings of others, ending for-profit colleges won’t end the vulnerabilities that made them the fastest growing sector of higher education at the turn of the twenty-first century. And she doesn’t stop there.

    With sharp insight and deliberate acumen, McMillan Cottom delivers a comprehensive view of postsecondary for-profit education by illuminating the experiences of the everyday people behind the shareholder earnings, congressional battles, and student debt disasters. The relatable human stories in Lower Ed—from mothers struggling to pay for beauty school to working class guys seeking “good jobs” to accomplished professionals pursuing doctoral degrees—illustrate that the growth of for-profit colleges is inextricably linked to larger questions of race, gender, work, and the promise of opportunity in America.

    Drawing on more than one hundred interviews with students, employees, executives, and activists, Lower Ed tells the story of the benefits, pitfalls, and real costs of a for-profit education. It is a story about broken social contracts; about education transforming from a public interest to a private gain; and about all Americans and the challenges we face in our divided, unequal society.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThe New Press
    Release dateFeb 28, 2017
    ISBN9781620971024
    Author

    Tressie McMillan Cottom

    Tressie McMillan Cottom is an assistant professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University and the author of Lower Ed (The New Press). Her work has been featured by the Washington Post, NPR's Fresh Air, The Daily Show, the New York Times, Slate, and The Atlantic, among others.

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    Reviews for Lower Ed

    4.5/5

    9 ratings2 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Dr. McMillan Cottom has written an excellent exegesis of the world of for-profit colleges. I am a huge fan of her work and can't wait to read her next offering.
      This book will make you laugh, cry, and reevaluate your life(not in any particular order).
      The funny thing is, when I was out of Bible College, I almost went to a for-profit until I saw the price tag and high tailed it to one of our local community colleges(which was excellent). If you know anyone who is considering a for-profit, tell them to do like Dare and just say no.
      If you are a professor, read this to better understand where your students may be coming from and offer them grace.
    • 5/5
      Some academic books are straightforward enough that they could be written by any qualified scholar within a field that does the research work, more or less. And some books are too original for that. This is definitely the latter, where the author used her years working in for-profit college admissions as the entry point to analyzing why they have expanded so much in the 21st century and what that means for their students. Anyhow, this is a relatively accessible book that blends that personal experience with a rigorous look into the investors and executives of several types of for-profit schools. No one is really made to be either the villain or the savior of students, and it's a great contribution to how we should make sense of the higher education industry.