New book examines how college pressures have changed the middle class

This may not be the most cheerful reading during back-to-school season, but it’s undeniably important if you have a college-bound kid — or are college bound yourself.

Caitlin Zaloom, an anthropologist and associate professor at New York University, interviewed dozens of families taking out student loans for her new book on the student loan crisis.

Zaloom shared some insights from Indebted: How Families Make College Work at Any Cost in an interview with NPR’s Elissa Nadworny.

You can read an edited version of that conversation on NPR’s website.