Zinch has a lot going on. A social clearinghouse for scholarships, events, and school connections, the site has nearly 5 years under its belt, a print book, over 900 participating companies, a partnership with Chegg, and a shout out in a White House educational brief.

Pros:
The key to Zinch’s success might be its flexibility. The site features an easily embeddable widget that’s become a go-to for sites offering scholarship essay contests. The site is a hub for students, institutions, and private scholarship providers and the data-heavy modules seem poised to appeal to these groups. The interface has a busy, lived-in feel and colleges seem to be very active on the site.

Cons:
Our review of the site in 2009 pegged it as a representation-centric site, something like Pathbrite, but the site has become much more. The UI gets a bit busy at times, but there’s clearly a lot on offer and the pages usually retain an energetic, youthful vibe that makes the information load permissible.

EdLab Relevance:
Zinch seems to strike a balance between providing information to prospective students and offering this group to marketing for schools and private companies. Zinch is very careful about this, providing a site-curated information bar in blast emails from schools and ensuring that students have a chance to reach out to one another. The site has seemed to thrive walking this line and its dedication to providing copious and pleasantly-presented information keeps it from becoming an ad trap.

Our Takeaway:
Zinch fills a need and does so with panache.