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"Ben Kaplan's brilliant book offers the keys to winning college scholarships—and even going to college for free! This is a must-read book."
— Mark Victor Hansen,
Co-author, 'Chicken Soup for the Soul' series

"[Ben speaks] with an energy and confidence that might remind an older generation of Dale Carnegie."
— Seattle Post-Intelligencer

"Now reissued, Kaplan's book offers advice on how to find and win money for college, delivered in an energetic and inspiring voice with broad appeal."
— Publishers Weekly

HOW TO GO TO COLLEGE ALMOST FOR FREE

By Ben Kaplan

COMPLETELY REVISED AND UPDATED FOR 2002!

The cold, hard facts about the cost of college would make anyone clutch their wallets a little tighter:

• Average annual cost of undergraduate tuition, room and board at a private college in 1960: $2,000
  
  
• Average annual cost in 2000: $16,322

No matter what kind of student you are, if you are serious about succeeding in college, scholarship money lies within your reach. Ben Kaplan applied for dozens of scholarships—and hit the jackpot. He perfected his approach to winning money for college, and so can you.

"Winning scholarships is a game," says Kaplan, a walking, talking scholarship success story. "A game with high stakes and huge rewards, but to succeed, you must be ready."

Get ready—to find out what they don't tell you in those thick, clumsy, mostly unusable scholarship directories.

In How to Go to College Almost for Free, you learn the game from someone who's played it well: Kaplan won more than two dozen merit-based scholarships in high school, accumulating nearly $90,000 in scholarship funds for use at any school. After graduating from Harvard magna cum laude in 1999, he self-published How to Go to College Almost for Free: The Secrets of Winning Scholarship Money, selling more than 65,000 copies. Now, the book is completely revised and updated for 2002—with new sections, strategies and action steps for everyone from high school and college students, to grad students and adults returning to school.

Putting his game face on—and maintaining this user-friendly theme throughout the volume with headings like "Ask the Coach" and "Guerrilla Tactics"—Kaplan navigates readers through five key parts brimming with the tips, tricks, and expertise that only someone who's been in the trenches can provide:

Part I: How the Game is Played
Kaplan distills "The Big, Bad World of Financial Aid," demystifies the merit scholarship application process, reveals the key components of typical scholarship applications, and educates parents on how they can best help.

Part II: Getting Ready to Play
Kaplan powerfully describes how to track down scholarship money right for you. Ten "Show Me the Money" Action Steps reveal the best techniques for searching scholarship databases and mining school, community, Internet, government, and other resources for your personal pot of scholarship gold.

Part III: Strategies that Give You the Edge
Learn the art of selling yourself! Discover how to "Paint Your Own Portrait," position yourself among the competition, dazzle the judges and beef up your scholarship content.

Part IV: When the Whistle Blows
No more nail-biting-master elements of the game like essays, recommendation letters, application forms, and interviews. Develop a game plan that tilts the odds in your favor, and learn to present your activity summaries, transcripts, and awards and honors lists in persuasive ways that bring home the scholarship bucks.

Part V: When the Buzzer Sounds
You've done it! Find out how to manage your scholarship winnings, discover additional ways to slash tuition bills, and learn how the skills you've developed in the scholarship game will profoundly impact your entire life.

How to Go to College Almost for Free is for anyone in search of money for higher education, including interested parents, older students wanting to go back to school or change careers, and even kids under 14 who want to get an early start. It is also a lifeline for the many of us caught in the "middle-income financial aid crunch"—the dilemma families face when they have too much income to qualify for substantial need-based financial aid, but not enough money to comfortably pay for college.

More than just an all-purpose reference manual, How to Go to College Almost for Free is a practical, hands-on guide. Each chapter concludes with a checklist of important concepts. A series of "Ask the Coach" sections reveal answers to key questions asked during Kaplan's annual Scholarship Coach National Tour. Keywords and other reference markers found throughout the book tie directly into a special readers-only section of Kaplan's ScholarshipCoach.com website—adding an important interactive component. The book even features prize-winning essays, entries, and application materials culled from Kaplan's own scholarship submissions. In addition, an attractive, well-organized format and design-featuring a slew of original art and graphics-makes the volume highly readable to students of all ages.

Pop quiz! Do you know:

• The Seven Scholarship Myths… and the truth that explodes them
• The Five Principles of Scholarship Searching
• The Seven Ways Parents Can Help
• The Ten Universal Judging Criteria
• The Five Principles of Winning Essays

If you don't, and if you want to take advantage of the wealth of scholarship opportunities waiting to be won, How to Go to College Almost for Free is an indispensable companion. Comprehensive yet entertaining and easy to understand, Kaplan's volume is the one book that may finally give everyone a chance to go to college… almost for free.

Author Bio
Twenty-three year old Ben Kaplan won more than two dozen scholarships-amassing nearly $90,000 in unrestricted college cash for use at any school. In 1999, he graduated from Harvard debt-free, with virtually the entire cost of his education covered by his scholarship winnings. Known internationally as "The Scholarship Coach," he has advised thousands of students and parents on college scholarships, financial aid, and personal growth, and has appeared on hundreds of television and radio programs.

How to Go to College Almost for Free
By Ben Kaplan
HarperCollins Publishers 0-06-093765-3 / $22.00