Education & Opportunity

Ben Kaplan is among the nation’s leading experts on educational success, college admissions and financial aid, and youth personal finance issues.

He directs the Ben Kaplan Institute for Educational Opportunity and has authored 12 books and CDs, including How to Go to College Almost for Free (HarperCollins Publishers, 2002)—the leading book in the genre with more than 250,000 copies in print.

Kaplan has also written a variety of articles for major publications, including The New York Times and U.S. News & World Report, and has been featured on more than 2,000 TV and radio programs, including appearances on Oprah, NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, Fox News Channel, NPR, and the BBC.

Kaplan received the inspiration for his weekly “Education & Opportunity” column in part from personal experience: As an Oregon high school student, he won more than two dozen college scholarships worth $90,000—enough to cover virtually the entire cost of attending Harvard. Graduating from Harvard in 1999 magna cum laude with a degree in economics, he conducted original research examining the timing of stock market IPOs and received the Morris Kronfeld Prize in Economics.

Now age 29 and known internationally as “America’s Scholarship Coach,” Kaplan publishes the popular www.ScholarshipCoach.com website and delivers paying-for-college seminars each year to more than 30,000 students and parents across the U.S.

Additionally, he was selected the “Top Student Leader in America” by the National Association of Secondary School Principals.