The Book Corner - Summer 2003
by Rachel DeHoyos, Manager Dollars for Scholars Programs

In the Spotlight:

How to Go to College Almost for Free
by Ben Kaplan

If you're involved in helping students get the financial aid resources they need to go to college, chances are you've already heard about 25-year-old author Ben Kaplan.  Kaplan, an Oregon native, secured over $90,000 in scholarships to pay his way through Harvard, and now he's sharing his strategies with students, parents and pretty much anyone who will listen.  His book, How to Go to College Almost for Free, provides students from all walks of life with creative ideas on researching and applying for scholarships.

Kaplan's personal experience and information gathered from countless interviews with successful scholarship recipients has allowed him to create a useful guide that gives both students and their families a fighting chance against today's rising tuition costs.  Kaplan helps readers demystify the work of financial aid and then shows how different types of scholarships can help off-set the cost of college.

In getting students to apply for merit-based scholarships and offering them many ways to showcase their talents, Kaplan helps students from middle-income families get around reliance on need-based aid.  By teaching both students and their parents to treat the scholarship like a job interview, Kaplan gets readers to see that a little time invested in researching appropriate scholarships can often have huge pay-offs in the end.

At $22 the advice in this book is a pretty good bargain.  If the high school library or counselor's office doesn't own this yet, find yourself a copy and help put one more tool in the hands of all those aspiring graduates this year.

Other Books by Ben Kaplan include:

The Scholarship Scouting Report: An Insider's Guide to America's Best Scholarships

For more information on Ben Kaplan check out www.scholarshipcoach.com.