The challenge of access to higher education has been a policy area of great concern to the Obama administration and the President has consistently stressed the importance of education beyond high school. The Vice President's Middle Class Task Force has stressed the importance of higher education in leading to higher earnings and greater economic mobility, and therefore, its role as a determinant of one of the most important aspirations of families across America, if not the globe: the ability of our children to realise their full potential. In this book, the pathway to higher education, scanning existing research for evidence of any barriers that block families and their children from achieving their education goals, is examined.