The College Dropout Boom.

Focuses on college dropouts in America. Experience of Andy Blevins, who quit college and wishes he had gotten his degree; Observation that on campuses that enroll poorer students, graduation rates are often low; How, despite broad gains in higher education for students from all classes, poor and working-class students have been falling behind; Why a college education matters much more than it once did; Suggestion that students at the best colleges may be diverse, but tend to share an upper-middle-class upbringing; Decline in economic mobility over the last generation; Discussion of why so many low-income students fall from the college ranks; Deterrents to a degree; Topic of affirmative action; Observation that the elite colleges have not been giving many breaks to low-income students who apply; Blevins' decision to return to college.