The Years That Matter Most tells the stories of students trying to find their way, with hope, joy, and frustration, through the appli-cation process and into college. Drawing on new research, the book reveals how the landscape of US higher education has shifted in recent decades and exposes the hidden truths of how the system works and whom it works for. Author Paul Tough takes readers on a journey from Ivy League seminar rooms to community college welding shops, from giant public flagship universities to tiny experimental storefront colleges. Tough’s three previous books include How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character, which spent more than a year on the New York Times hardcover and paperback best-seller lists. In a review for The New York Times, Tara Westover said: “As Tough points out, wealthy universities have wealthy alumni, who, after benefiting from an elite education, are even better positioned to donate large sums of money. This is the final cog in the inequality machine, an intense cycle of wealth concentration.”