More Than a Test Score

Folks, March Madness is upon us.

As some of the most talented students in the country battle it out through the next three rounds, we've been getting a lot of questions about new zinch scholarships, next years sweet-diggity-dawg award, and what the options are for students who still need free money.

For those of you in need, check out my blog post from a few months back about the top five ways to get free money for college. Be sure to read the comments as well — some great ideas were added by Zinchers (congrats again Nancy!).

At this point, you should all have accounts on the major scholarship aggregators, you should keep them updated, and you should click the box to let them send you information. 

Here are the big ones: 

FastWeb.com

ScholarshipExperts.com

FreeScholarshipGuide.com

(more…)

Alright my sweet 16 peoples. It is the real deal and it’s getting intense. Some of you are off to big leads and some have some tight match ups once again. All i can say is this weekend will be big. It’s in your hands to see how you handle it. Playing catch up after this weekend is going to be a tough chore. So the question is whether you got the apple bottom jeans, the boots with the fur out partying or are you working your mojo to get more votes?

Either way, it’s game time. Do your thing. And, yes, Mick and I posted our analysis:) Have a good weekend!

Votes have been tallied, the Zinch Sweet 16 have emerged and the new matchups will be posted at 3pm EST today. First, a few items of business:

- Please take note of all dates for the remaining rounds (scroll down to "Timeline")

- Note that we've added a code for each vote.  This makes our job of filtering only legit votes easier.

- We will continue to upload your YouTube videos- feel free to email them to us.

- We will be highlighting at each of the Sweet 16 candidates, so look for our correspondence.

We're pleased to see an overall decrease in negative comments. Funny how the Internet gives some people a license to be a jerk. Turning off anonymous comments has helped. Most significant is the effort and conversation you all are having:

Eric: "I can't believe they stuck 2 underdogs/awesome people against each other so soon…. Whatevs, Shelby, can we still be fbook friends after this? hahaha :-)"

or Andy: "Mackenzie, a worthy opponent, will be tough to beat. It is cool that we are both Scouts!""

or Noelle: "Hey, Tara! Congratulations on moving onto the second round! Let's see where God takes us this time…good luck! Also, to everyone who's reading this…let's make sure to be gracious this round with the commenting! I don't know about you, but flamewars definitely get really exhausting and discouraging. Thanks a lot!"

or Kayleen: "I love reading everyone's comments so please add something if you want. Keep it strictly positive. =) Thanks again."

or The Zinch Social Butterfly (my man Kirk): "Here we go, Rhiannon! Good luck! Let the games begin. ;)"

You get the point. You guys have set the tone- well done! Competition with class. I dare say it looks as if we will not have to unleash the dogs on those haters. Still, if you have suggestions, don't ever hesitate to email us, your Zinch uncles. We are simply the stage. You guys are the performers and for the most part we want to stay out of your way… aaaand maybe join the fun every now and again :) At the same time, party crashers, much like Wedding Crashers, and we need not cite the extreme in funeral crashers, are not welcome.

Cheers.

The first round was filled with excitement and plenty of down-to-the-wire hustle. I am a real fan of the underdogs (who's not, right?). Brings to mind a short, skinny Canadian that led #15 seed Santa Clara University to an upset over #2 seed Arizona. He was as Nashty then as he is today. But you know, how about those that lost last round? Have you noticed their participation already in the second round? That is pure- pure sportsmanship and pure class.

One student shared these comments:

"I was eliminated for the 64 bracket of the March Madness face-off; however, I just wanted to say thank you for this awesome opportunity, as I have worked on my public relations and people skills. Please keep it up!"

And a family member spoke of their student's experience this way:

"[Our student] leaves the competition a winner in the eyes of his family and friends as from this experience he built upon his communication skills, networking skills, computer skills, and his analytical and reasoning skills. Most importantly he was able to feel and experience the love from the people that matter to him most; that gave him the motivation and confidence he needs to be successful."

Good luck to all those that depart our tourney. Thank you for gracing the Zinch walls, sharing your friends and family with us, and giving us something to cheer for. We wish you well on your future endeavors.

Wow. It’s down to 32. Round 1 was some crazy competition, Cinderella upsets, underdogs moving on and a number 1 seed putting the smack down with 4200+ votes. That was crazy. We’re sad to see 32 of you go. You guys were all awesome, and we think all of you deserve this scholarship. Nothing but love to you guys, seriously that was some great effort. So here we go…round 2 coming up in less than an hour. This should get interesting and we’ll see how your strategies pay off. This will get harder for you guys as we go deeper into rounds, I’m not sure if you’re going to be able to hit up the same people or not. It’s mano y mano again. You got one person to beat to move on. Let’s get it on!

And if anyone wants to test their hoop knowledge against the Zinch founders and Zinch employees, we would love the challenge. Join our bracket picks here on Facebook. Fill out a bracket and see if you got some skills. If you beat us we will feature you in a blog and let the world know how you dominated us in Hoop smarts. Pretty much we’ll bow to you:)