MAKING COLLEGE PAY by Beth Akers is a recently released text in which "An Economist Explains How to Make a Smart Bet on Higher Education." Akers who has co-authored Game of Loans is currently a Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Early in the text, she notes that "the extra earnings afforded by a college degree tend to far outweigh the up-front cost." However, she goes on to argue that "our culture tends to discourage aspiring students from being appropriately critical consumers when shopping for colleges." Akers focuses on the idea that using an economic lens (weighing potential benefits versus costs) will help students and their families make better financial decisions involving both where to go and how to pay for college. She includes graphs and charts, especially quoting work done at The Center on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University. That data, with a range of projected earnings by major, will be especially helpful to many of our business and consumer classes who regularly are tasked with assuming they have completed undergraduate school and then establishing a budget and expenses outline. Those concepts (rent, groceries, or cell phones cost how much?) are truly new to many of them. Akers includes an entire chapter titled "Loans: the Smart Way to Pay" which may also offer some ideas new to students and parents, particularly with her comments about how working part-time while enrolled might set students back financially and/or why it's often best to borrow, even if the need is not there. An Appendix with useful links and resources, plus notes (just under ten percent of the text) are included in this very practical, if sometimes dry, guide. 3.5 stars

Deciding on college is the biggest decision of a young person's life: social, intellectual, economic, and financial. Yet it is also a decision that is based on some the shakiest of foundations--where/whether parents went to college, beloved sports teams, cool colors, traditions.

Beth Akers brings a sober economist's eye to the college application process, minimizing the differences between private and public universities while maintaining a strong focus on the significance of choosing a major that will make a college investment pay off for the student and her/his family.

Later chapters discuss the types of loans available and offer advice on debt (key idea: have in mind a career that will help you pay them back). Drawing on her own experience as a first-year art student at a tony private college who transferred to a public university to major in economics, she provides key appendices with resources that compare colleges and which illustrate the true value of variety of college majors.

At a length that families, students and guidance counselors will find useful, this book is an ideal resource for those who are thinking big--trying to match big dreams with financial fears.

I don't think that Akers (or any economist, guidance counselor, or parent) will ever take the emotion, the pride, the ambition, or the many other emotions out of choosing college. But her book informs and enlightens. It will make a difference for those who read.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Finally, a college book that isn't all about how to get your kid into the "right" school! With the recent trend towards either applying to only the Ivies or opting out of college entirely, it's helpful to see how college can still be an achievable goal for all students, as long as they're realistic and smart about the process.