Sources of Money 16: Double Your Scholarship Money with Zinch

Tuesdays we review a source of financial aid available to help pay for college

Ed applied for several scholarships and earned them. He used 5 scholarship search engines, worked closely with the scholarship guidance counselor at his high school, and financial aid counselors at the four colleges he targeted for admissions. His original list of potential scholarships numbered more than 600. He reduced the list to 145 potential scholarships by spending 30 minutes a day deleting the contests, surveys, scams, and scholarships for which he had almost no change of winning.

Purpose of Zinch

Zinch (www.zinch.com) describes itself as

“Almost all colleges find and recruit students through standardized test scores. Zinch allows students to be seen for what they are -- not just numbers, but people. With more than 800 schools and $1 billion in scholarships, Zinch has quickly become the standard for helping students succeed. Zinch is now 3 million plus students and growing fast.”

Free Services on Zinch

Zinch, by Chegg, offers

• Weekly 3 sentence scholarships for $1,000, asking you to answer a questions like “You are more than a test score.” in no more than 3 sentences
• Tips, advice, news, and motivational stories to encourage students to apply
• Great interactive help and FAQ’s allowing comments from others that help you
• Cheap textbook sources and exchanges
• Articles from Forbes and other major publications about college and paying for it
• Video clips about the admissions process and what helps and what doesn’t help
• Scholarship search tools with clear and easy summaries with an “Apply Now” button
• Checkboxes to only show scholarships with “no essay required” or “Apply online”
• Easy ways to create scholarships so that you can help others
• Opportunities for study abroad, international students, internships, and jobs
• Calendar of events from educational programs across the country

Additional Services for Members

You may join Zinch by completing a very simple profile under the “Sign up” button AND agreeing to receive emails from other organizations. Members may

• Double Your Money using Zinch
• Match scholarship money from other sources

Thursday we review how to outline reusable essays to impress scholarship committees