Poison Ivy

Praise for Poison Ivy:
Next Big Idea Book Club Nominee, October 2022

“One of several new and thoughtful books . . . asking whether it is fair that ostensibly meritocratic societies have handed such extensive power to a small clutch of academic institutions.”
—Brooke Masters, The Financial Times

“A scathing indictment of how elite colleges contribute to the nation’s increasing social and economic inequality.”
—Forbes

“A no-holds-barred take-down . . . Mandery offers a detailed and scathing indictment of how elite colleges . . . contribute to the nation’s increasing social and economic inequality. One of the best higher education books of 2022.”
—Mike Nietzel, Forbes.com

“Lively and trenchant . . . Mandery presents his indictment with an appealing blend of storytelling and hard data.”
—Richard Kahlenberg, Washington Monthly

“[Poison Ivy] slams the role that the Ivy League and other private universities play in perpetuating and even worsening our vast social chasms.”
—Will Bunch, Philadelphia Inquirer

“Drawing on individual stories and fascinating data, Mandery shows that . . . so-called top schools . . . are accessible almost exclusively to the already well-off.”
—Mary Elizabeth Williams, Salon

“Mandery lays out compelling evidence that Ivy League universities—along with peer institutions such as Stanford, MIT, Chicago, Duke, and Georgetown—propagate segregation and income inequality.”
—Ross O’Hara, Psychology Today

“This book shines a light on the world of elite Ivy League universities in regard to their avowed support of education for all.”
—Library Journal

“A potent investigation into how elite colleges and universities in the U.S. perpetuate economic inequalities and fail to properly address the country’s ongoing racial divide.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Mandery argues that the pernicious unevenness of social class at elite colleges is a blueprint for other modes of injustice. Liberal audiences may be startled to see themselves mirrored unflatteringly in these pages, yet readers must not turn away from this book’s cruel awakening. A necessary read for parents, academics, college officials, and most of all the students and alumni who benefit from this tilted system.”
—Alissa Quart, author of Squeezed and executive director of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project

“A staggering portrait of inequality in America, Poison Ivy offers poignant, lyrically written portraits of student lives on the margins of the American higher education system and a carefully constructed exposé of the fundamental myth at its heart. Through conversations with experts, bolstered by data, Mandery shows that the well-recognized inequities at American elite colleges are not the consequences of segregation and disparities of opportunities, but rather the driver of them.”
—Philip Dray, author of There Is Power in a Union

“Beautifully written and engaging, Poison Ivy holds elite higher education accountable for exacerbating the gulf between poor and rich, black and white.”
—Erin I. Kelly, Pulitzer Prize–winning co-author of Chasing Me to My Grave

“It’s time to wake up and realize that our best ladders of opportunity aren’t at colleges with billion-dollar endowments—they’re at our publicly funded institutions.”
—Jack Schneider, co-author of A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door