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A review by sara_shocks
Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy by Tressie McMillan Cottom
5.0
5/5 stars
The first (and only) interaction I had in high school with a for-profit college was a presentation + career aptitude assessment during an elective my senior year. I knew the group putting on the presentation wasn't a "real" college--they offered classes online and even if I didn't realize the distinction was actually about profit structure, my socioeconomic background had resulted in my knowing it wasn't as prestigious as where I had applied and been accepted by a long shot. (Also, the quiz suggested I would be well-suited as a parole officer, which...absolutely not for me.) I'm embarrassed to admit that reading this book actually taught me the difference between a more traditional school, i.e., a not-for-profit college, and something like the place we got the demo from.
(Of course, I now see I was not at all the target of that presentation, and instead all of the students approaching graduation whose backgrounds would not have prepared them for a "traditional" higher education experience were the targets. These targeted students are from poor backgrounds and most frequently are women and people of color. There's a reason the presentation occurred in a "Career & Technical Education" elective and not, say, AP English.)
Dr. Cottom is such a pleasure to read, even when the content is upsetting, because she has such an incisive writing style and I feel enlightened by her thought processes. The research here is all thoroughly explained and presented in an accessible manner, and she did an excellent job of balancing the statistical facts with narrative examples. I highly recommend this not just if you have curiosity about for-profit colleges but also if you want to read more about the New Economy and the labor market we're all stuck in.
The first (and only) interaction I had in high school with a for-profit college was a presentation + career aptitude assessment during an elective my senior year. I knew the group putting on the presentation wasn't a "real" college--they offered classes online and even if I didn't realize the distinction was actually about profit structure, my socioeconomic background had resulted in my knowing it wasn't as prestigious as where I had applied and been accepted by a long shot. (Also, the quiz suggested I would be well-suited as a parole officer, which...absolutely not for me.) I'm embarrassed to admit that reading this book actually taught me the difference between a more traditional school, i.e., a not-for-profit college, and something like the place we got the demo from.
(Of course, I now see I was not at all the target of that presentation, and instead all of the students approaching graduation whose backgrounds would not have prepared them for a "traditional" higher education experience were the targets. These targeted students are from poor backgrounds and most frequently are women and people of color. There's a reason the presentation occurred in a "Career & Technical Education" elective and not, say, AP English.)
Dr. Cottom is such a pleasure to read, even when the content is upsetting, because she has such an incisive writing style and I feel enlightened by her thought processes. The research here is all thoroughly explained and presented in an accessible manner, and she did an excellent job of balancing the statistical facts with narrative examples. I highly recommend this not just if you have curiosity about for-profit colleges but also if you want to read more about the New Economy and the labor market we're all stuck in.