Remember when you took your SAT's? Or maybe you even ventured as far as taking your GRE's for graduate school? Kaplan is the publisher that issues all those delightful books you dog-earred as a teen, then forgot about the moment you got your acceptance letter. Perhaps your kids are teens now. If so, read on.
We all know higher education for our children is downright expensive. I'm shocked time and again at how costly it is to attend my own alma mater (that's when we genuflect to the German universities who followed Alexander Humboldt's belief in universal college education with little to no tuition fees. Thanks, Alex!) My son loves to play soccer and at the ripe old age of six, he's pretty darn good at it.
For those of you scratching your heads in despair as you contemplate the cost of your young'uns' college, I have one solution you may want to consider.
Two-thirds of all colleges in the United States offer some type of athletic scholarship program. According to Get Paid to Play: Every Student Athlete's Guide to Over $1 Million in College Scholarships by Nancy Nitardy, there are 3200 men and women varsity basketball programs, over 1,100 soccers programs and 1400 collegiate baseball and softball programs. The book is also broken down into 
types of sports, colleges and opportunities, depending on your child's goals. Does he want to play and doesn't care in which division (there are four)? The book covers that. Does he want to be in the Big Leagues? Nancy tells you how.
It was interesting to see a sample of the resume a student athlete should put together. It reveals coach contact information, the child's birthdate and more. While these details aren't typically suitable for the job market, they're one way a college scholarship and admissions committee can determine the student's status.
Personally, I'm thrilled to have such a well-written reference guide in the event one of my kids gets the wild idea of wanting to attend college in the States! Play ball! would take on a very different meaning, indeed.
