Four years later, their story seems less like a tribute to upward mobility than a study of obstacles in an age of soaring economic inequality. Not one of them has a four-year degree. Only one is still studying full time, and two have crushing debts. Angelica, who left Emory owing more than $60,000, is a clerk in a Galveston furniture store.

Each showed the ability to do college work, even excel at it. But the need to earn money brought one set of strains, campus alienation brought others, and ties to boyfriends not in school added complications. With little guidance from family or school officials, college became a leap that they braved without a safety net.

This is more anecdotal evidence that the rich get richer but the poor stay poor.

Without a commitment to help each other, the winners truly do take all.

Saw this yesterday. Thanks for posting--the problem is this... we have so many systems competing with systems to measure achievement, but there is no one dealing with the massive cost of college.  Does college need to be the measure of everything? I think we'll see the 21st C classroom really disrupt this on some levels--I'm studying Mandarin using Rosetta Stone, for example.  Will someone say, "Nope, sorry, you don't have 6 credits." Actually, yes, in the school certification setting, so I won't be able to teach that sans transcript, but in the real world, I'll be able to speak. Same with any skill-based proficiency--would you avoid hiring a brilliant coder/dev because there was no Stanford/MIT student loans behind that?  We really need to rethink where we're sending these kids before we mandate that we must send them all there.... and I say this from a standpoint of someone who is extremely grateful for my education (right down to the last student loan).