New Book Urges Students to Wake Up and Smell the Tuition



"Caveat Discipulus - Let the Student Beware!" declares Marc Scheer, author of No Sucker Left Behind: Avoiding the Great College Rip-Off. Scheer has written the only book that blows the lid off colleges' scandalous price-gouging schemes. While students and families are crushed by steep tuition prices and educational debt, colleges gather billions of dollars in their endowment funds and reward their employees with lavish salaries and perks.

"Colleges," Scheer reveals, "are profit-obsessed businesses best approached with the wariness reserved for used-car salesmen." From the application process to the undergraduate years and all the way through graduate school, Scheer shows how universities trap students into high costs and unmanageable debt. For example, Scheer illustrates that a surprisingly wide range of private and public colleges...

-    Create "financial aid packages" that encourage students to borrow much more than they can afford (including loan increases of as much as 30% per year);

-    Purchase and analyze personal credit databases and other information in order to offer students the fewest possible discounts;

-    Require students to buy meal plans that can cost up to $18 per meal, and housing plans that can cost six times as much as off-campus housing (in addition to a host of other hidden fees);

-    Treat education and instruction as an afterthought rather than a top priority; and

-    Neglect academic support services, leading to slow student progress, pitifully low graduation rates, and high dropout rates.

The good news is that Scheer arms students with innovative tools to fight back and get a valuable degree for less. And, for those unwilling or unable to take the college gamble, he includes an "Appendix for the Adventurous: Success Without College."

Author bio

Marc Scheer, PhD, is a researcher, career counselor, and educational consultant who lives in New York City. He has counseled students at public and private colleges and universities around the country, and he has managed a wide range of educational, financial, and investment studies for large research and media firms. Dr. Scheer completed his PhD in counseling psychology. For more information, visit http://NoSuckerLeftBehind.blogspot.com

Note to EDITORS and PRODUCERS: Marc Scheer, PhD, is available for interviews. Review copies available.

No Sucker Left Behind: Avoiding the Great College Rip-Off

Author: Marc Scheer, PhD

ISBN: 9781567513783, paper, $19.95 350 pages, Index

ISBN: 9781567513790, hardback, $39.95

Contact: Greg Bates, gbates@commoncouragepress.com

P.O. Box 702 or 121 Red Barn Road, Monroe, ME 04951 207-525-0900 fax 207-525-3068

PUB DATE: SEPTEMBER 2008

What people are saying about No Sucker Left Behind

"If you're considering college - or sending a child to college - this is the book you have to read first!"

- Thom Hartmann, Nationally syndicated radio talk-show host

"The cost of college is skyrocketing. Students are increasingly getting into hock - at rates they can't afford - just to pay their bills. No Sucker Left Behind is a must-read manual that tells us about this pernicious debt trap and what we can do about it."

- Danny Schechter, Director, IN DEBT WE TRUST

"Every student and parent needs to read this book. I wish my son had read it before he went to college."

-- Janne O'Donnell, Board of Directors, Americans for Fairness in Lending





New Book Urges Students to Wake Up and Smell the Tuition