Poison Ivy: How Elite Colleges Divide Us

This book shines a light on the world of elite Ivy League universities in regard to their avowed support of education for all. The author, a Harvard graduate who now works at a public university, looks at the reality behind these statements of support. He does so by investigating the landscape of higher education through the widening gap between socioeconomic levels in American communities. The author identifies initial and ongoing detriments and barriers, such as less initial access to well-funded schools and lack of transportation to higher-paying jobs. He also offers potential solutions for change and bases his conclusions on his own experiences, data from higher education research studies, and personal interviews with students who have been both inside and outside the system of elite higher education. This book paints a stark picture of the disparate worlds of the wealthy and the not-so-wealthy in American higher education. It shows how the Ivy League universities not only reinforce this gap, but exacerbate it. It also exposes the mythmaking that elite universities engage in to justify the current form of higher education.