How to Go to College Almost for Free, Updated

I am a Certified College Planner and recommend this book especially for high school freshmen and sophomores. With the elite schools costing over $200,000 for 4 years, a student's family needs to tap all sources of college funding. This book is a well written guide that helps by 'holding your hand' through the process of finding and winning private scholarships. Anyone can have a stash of college money at the ready when they begin college. Ben Kaplan shows you how.

When I saw the title of this book, I began salivating uncontrollably. Imagine, having someone else pay to send your kids to college. That may have been an overreaction. Surely anyone else that has college-bound kids should sympathize. The book is well organized and written on a level that will not challenge a high school student. However, there are tips for a wider audience including the very young, older returning students, graduate students, and students that fit into special groups.Clearly, the competition for scholarships can be intense, but with a logical game plan engaged in consistently, an applicant's effectiveness can be increased. The one consistent theme in the book is that a steady approach will lead to success. I will take issue with a combination of techniques mentioned in the book. Kaplan suggests that students get their recommendations in electronic format so that they can print them out as needed. He also suggests that you solicit "small" changes to recommendation letters to make them "great" letters. I feel this may present many an ethical challenge to some applicants. To be clear, he does not suggest manufacturing recommendation letters.He also provides access to his companion web site to add extra punch to the process.In the final analysis, it is hard to argue with his success, and Kaplan was very successful on his own behalf. He interviewed many of the people involved as applicant and administrators and their tips appear in the book.

I'm a college student who doesn't qaulify for a lot of financial aid from my school, so I've basically seen every type of scholarship book out there. I can tell you that "How to Go to College Almost for Free" is the ONLY scholarship book you need to get. The book has everything you need, including how to find scholarships, how to fill out winning applications, and how to avoid the common pitfalls. Before I got this book I thought I was going to have to take a term off from school to earn money. But after following its step by step instructions, I won 4 scholarships in a matter of months and not only paid for my tuition but had money left over to cover my books and fees.

This book helped me win $16,000 in scholarships, and the scholarship winnings continue to build. Yeah, I probably could have won some of these scholarships without reading the book, but the book made everything so much simpler and showed me exactly what I needed to do. The essay section itself is worth many times the cover price as it helped me turn unsuccessful scholarship essays into ones that seem to be getting results. That section was also really useful for writing college essays and school papers as well. Overall, you can't go wrong by getting this book.