Beating the Odds: How the Poor Get to College

Prologue: Why the Odds Don't Change for the Poor Part One: Weighing the Odds 1. The Odds Against Escaping from Poverty 2. The Odds Against Going to College Part Two: Beating the Odds 3. A Portrait of Twenty-Four Who Succeeded 4. Hitting the Jackpot: Entree to the Elites 5. Betting the Farm: The Struggle Just to Get in the Door Part Three: Improving the Odds 6. Nine Mentors Who Changed the Odds 7. The Lesson: One Arm Around One Child 8. Evening the Odds: Making College Possible for the Poor Resource: Brief Biographies of the Twenty-Four Students Inverviewed.