College and the Working Class

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-vii

   PDF

2. Introduction and Methods

   • Allison L. Hurst

   Pages 1-16

3. College and the Working Class

   • Allison L. Hurst

   Pages 17-42

4. Should I Stay or Should I Go?

   • Allison L. Hurst

   Pages 43-64

5. Border Country

   • Allison L. Hurst

   Pages 65-82

6. On and Off Campus

   • Allison L. Hurst

   Pages 83-109

7. You Can’t Go Home Again

   • Allison L. Hurst

   Pages 111-127

8. Post Grad

   • Allison L. Hurst

   Pages 129-150

9. Conclusion

   • Allison L. Hurst

   Pages 151-172

10. Back Matter

    Pages 173-190

    PDF

What are the meanings, experiences, and impact of college for working-class people? The author of this book addresses the two questions, what is college like for working-class students, and what is college for the working class? In The Other Three Percent, the author draws on a wealth of previous research to tell the stories of five very different working-class college students as they apply to, enter, successfully navigate, and complete college. Through these stories readers will learn about the obstacles working-class students face and overcome, the costs and effectiveness of higher education as a mechanism of social mobility, and the problems caused on our college campuses by our reticence to meaningfully confront the class divide. Readers will be invited to compare their own experiences of higher education with those of the students here described, and to evaluate their own institutions’ openness towards working-class students through a series of checklists provided in the book’s conclusion. Allison L. Hurst is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. She is a member of the Association of Working-Class Academics.

• Sociology of Education

• Furman University, SC, USA

  Allison L. Hurst

Policies and ethics