College on the cheap

How To Go To College (Almost) for Free

Benjamin R. Kaplan

Waggle Dancer…

How To Go To College (Almost) for Free

Benjamin R. Kaplan

Waggle Dancer Books, 2000

“How To Go To College (Almost) for Free” is a book that – for the author at least – lives up to its title.

The book, by Benjamin R. Kaplan, explains how to win as many scholarship contests as possible. The book is addressed particularly to those students Kaplan describes as in the “middle income financial aid crunch” – students whose families make too much money to qualify for any need-based aid, but don’t make enough to pay the entire cost of attending college.

The author is quite an authority on the topic of scholarships. He won more than two dozen merit-based scholarship competitions before graduating high school, almost enough to finance his entire education at Harvard University. The book is written using the metaphor of the scholarship search as a game: You are the player, and Kaplan is the coach.

His passion for the subject is uplifting. He writes, “This book is the culmination of my attempts to level the playing field by centralizing the critical strategies, tactics and techniques of winning scholarships into one accessible volume. I have poured my heart and soul into making this book everything that I could have used when the financial realities of paying for college were staring me square in the face.”

Kaplan reveals much about the way some scholarship competitions are judged, including hidden criteria and biases. He also has many essay-writing techniques, explains how to get well-written letters of recommendation and gives helpful interview tips.

Additionally, the book has several appendices, listing scholarship contests and other useful materials. Kaplan succeeded in finding different types of scholarships. He covers everything from better-known, corporate-sponsored awards to more obscure scholarships such as the United Daughters of the Confederacy Scholarship, which requires applicants to be descendants of Confederate soldiers. Even though most financial aid and scholarships are available primarily to high school seniors, there’s still plenty out there for currently enrolled undergrads and graduate students.

Kaplan’s style of writing is somewhat dumbed-down, which makes for easy understanding, but can also be irritating. For example, when explaining the two main types of financial aid (need-based and merit-based) he refers to them as “flavors,” with a picture of two ice cream cones in the margin. One would hope that if Kaplan’s readers want to attend college they don’t need financial aid explained to them in Baskin-Robbins terms.

The author also undermines his own point – anyone can win lots of scholarships – with his own mind-boggling accomplishments. In high school, Kaplan was a varsity athlete, the student body president and editor in chief of his school’s student newspaper. In addition, he was smart enough to be admitted to Harvard, so it’s safe to assume he maintained excellent grades, had a high SAT score and can write great essays.

But in the end, Kaplan is right. The search for money to finance a college education often is a crazy game. The rules may seem unclear and ever-shifting, but we all need to learn how to play.