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

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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:)

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Quick note- March Madness has regional brackets (N,S,E,W) with a mix of students from all over the country. Just because you were in East #1 in the semis does NOT mean you will be in the East bracket for the 64. This is the way it works folks.

So, you’re all in the correct bracket, no need to notify us. But, here’s a homework assignment- watch some of the NCAA basketball tournament this year. Your lives are 1/5 of the way over, not accounting for future advances in medicine. Please watch college basketball.

Finalists! If you want us to post one of your videos on your matchup page, send them to us at marchmadness@zinch.com ! I know a bunch of you have already done videos….but let us know if you want us to put them up and send the link of the vid again to make sure it's easy for us to get to. View an example of what i'm talking about by checking out Leah Titus' video on her matchup page.

-Mick

Several of you are plugging yourselves on Youtube. This is a great way to broadcast your message/plea for the scholarship, so nice work, especially those of you who've never used YouTube before. In all this, I'd like to remind everyone that the point is to show why you are "more than a test score." You are drawing attention to yourselves and you are calling people to action on your behalf. May I suggest we draw attention to the right things. Many are doing just that, and we love it. Our IT guys are getting sidetracked on your videos over here ("get back to work!")…

The way you present yourselves will distinguish you and impact someone's willingness to take the desired action… You want a metaphor you say? Fine. You've each baked a nice little cake you call 'you.' You've spent years on this thing, and it tastes good. How are you going to serve it up? On a nice platter that accents the cake itself. You don't draw attention to the fork or even the napkin. The real prize is that scrumptious piece of cake. And you'd never grab a chunk of cake in your hand and throw it at the person you're serving, right? Of course not.

Ya'all are a bunch of smooth students. Show them why you are more than a test score! Tell you what- you make videos that do yourselves justice, and Mick Hagen, our Sweet Diggity Nerd, will make an announcement. (drumroll)…

The 64 finalists have been chosen. Be sure to check out the brackets to vote.

Also in the news. For the semifinalists who didn't make it: we are giving away $1k to one of you in the new Biggest Loser Competition.. You can only vote for one person among ALL groups on the page there.

Also with the final 64: You can use these domain names to have people go directly to your tab in the brackets:
www.zinch.com/east
www.zinch.com/west
www.zinch.com/north
www.zinch.com/south

64 finalists have been chosen. Let the games begin. This is gonna be a fun ride….

- Mick