Ben Kaplan is a Harvard-trained economist, public commentator specializing in education, scholarships and economics, and author of the books ''How to Get to College Almost for Free'' and ''The Scholarship Scouting Report'', published by HarperCollins. He has written columns for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, t ...

'', and '' U.S. News & World Report''. His "Scholars & Dollars" education column was launched in ''

The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 18 ...

'' (Portland's daily newspaper) in 2006. In 2008, he launched a companion radio feature on

KMOX KMOX (1120 AM) is a commercial radio station in St. Louis, Missouri. Owned by Audacy, Inc., it is a 50,000 watt Class A clear-channel station with a non-directional signal. The KMOX studios and offices are on Olive Street at Tucker Boulev ...

-AM in St. Louis. He is a graduate of South Eugene High School in Oregon.

Career and book

Kaplan obtained over two dozen scholarships totaling $90,000 from programs including the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation, the Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership Foundation, and the United States Senate Youth Program. This allowed him to finance most of his Harvard education, and led him to write the book ''How to Get to College Almost for Free'', which was published by

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News C ...

, after Kaplan successfully self-published. He was selected the "Top Student Leader in America" by the

National Association of Secondary School Principals The National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) is a national organization of and voice for middle level and high school principals, assistant principals, and aspiring school leaders from across the United States and more than 45 ...

Media

Kaplan has provided media commentary for numerous outlets, including interviews on ''

The Oprah Winfrey Show ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', often referred to as ''The Oprah Show'' or simply ''Oprah'', is an American daytime broadcast syndication, syndicated talk show that aired nationally for 25 seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, in Chicag ...

'', ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. ...

'', '' Nightline'', NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN,

Fox News The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is ...

, NPR, G4, and the BBC. In 2012, he was interviewed on '' Attack of the Show'' by comedian Ben Schwartz.

Start Up Chile

In 2012, Kaplan was invited to participate in global incubator Start-Up Chile. During this time he worked with start-ups from over 50 countries across the world—focusing on PR for smaller companies.

PR Hacker

Kaplan founded PR Hacker in 2013 with an office in San Francisco. To date, the agency has represented

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquarter ...

Postmates Postmates is a food delivery service, founded in 2011, and acquired by Uber in 2020. It offers local delivery of restaurant-prepared meals and other goods. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California. , Postmates operates in 2,940 U.S. ...

, Meow Mix, and Budweiser. The company's services include PR, media planning, reputation management,

digital marketing Digital marketing is the component of marketing that uses the Internet and online based digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones and other digital media and platforms to promote products and services. Its development dur ...

, and web development.

External links

Ben Kaplan from HarperCollins Publishing

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaplan, Benjamin 1977 births Living people Harvard University alumni American non-fiction writers Writers from Eugene, Oregon