The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges are Failing Disadvantaged Students

Anthony Abraham Jack’s 2019 nonfiction book The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges are Failing Disadvantaged Students is based on sociological research the author conducted between 2013 and 2016 on the campus of an unnamed elite Northeastern university. There, he observed events on campus while also conducting interviews with 76 undergraduates from underprivileged backgrounds and 27 Black students from middle-class or upper-income families in order to find out how social class impacts students’ adjustment to college and to determine ways colleges make students feel part of, or separate from, the community. The book was named one of NPR Books’ best books of 2019.

This guide uses the hardcover first edition.

Plot Summary

In the Introduction, Jack recounts his own journey from a rough neighborhood in Miami, to a private high school, to Amherst College. There, he experienced the shock of seeing and hearing people with far more money than he had talking about luxury trips. After he became a sociology graduate student years later, he would come to describe himself as a Privileged Poor student. The Privileged Poor are students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds but spend time at elite high schools before entering college. These are contrasted with

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