SU Brokers Deal with Kaplan

December 20th, 2006

By Angus Armstrong And Prameet Kumar
Kaplan, the national private education company, has formed a partnership with Stuyvesant’s Student Union (SU) in which Stuyvesant students will be eligible for a $200 discount on test preparation classes regularly priced at $999.

The agreement, originally proposed to representatives of Kaplan by the SU, applies to Kaplan’s winter session. Kaplan offers instruction for college admissions exams such as the SAT, as well as the Standardized High School Admissions Test.

Sophomore Joe Blay said that he is planning on taking a prep course in the near future. “I’m glad about [the discount]. I’ll take advantage of it if there are no strings attached,” he said.

Senior and SU President George Zisiadis said that there are no restrictions for receiving the rebate. “You call up Kaplan to register and you say you’re from Stuyvesant High School and they’ll give you a discount,” he said.

However, some students are skeptical about this arrangement. “This deal gives an unfair advantage to Stuyvesant students,” said junior Kevin Strang. “It is sort of unfair to other public schools who need the aid more than we do.”

Junior Matthew Konigsberg was not aware of the rebate and paid full price for his prep class. “I didn’t know that we could get a discount. I paid more money than I had to.” He said that he would contact Kaplan and try to receive reimbursement.

“The problem with this [agreement] is that the deal was negotiated rather late,” Zisiadis said. “We were not able to properly advertise to the students because most students sign up months in advance.”

The SU is trying to make more agreements related to this one with Kaplan for the future. “We want to work out a similar deal for all the spring SAT courses,” Zisiadis said. “It’s very likely we will also advertise much more heavily to the students.”

Zisiadis said, however, that the SU was not endorsing Kaplan. “In doing this,” he said, “we’re not trying to advocate Kaplan over Princeton Review or any other prep course. This is part of our constant campaign to improve the quality of student life.”