The regular season for men’s college basketball is nearly two-thirds complete, with schools now playing the second half of their conference season. This time next month we will be in the midst of March Madness with Selection Sunday announcing the 65 teams who made the tournament, with the first game played two days later.

Oddly, the defending national champion UNC Tarheels look like that they will sit this one out unless they manage to win the conference tournament, thereby receiving an automatic bid. But at 13-10, that isn’t a likely scenario with the more realistic picture having the Tarheels play in the NIT.

But the Tarheels are not the only surprise team of 2010. There are at least four more teams who have raised eyebrows at some point this season with some not on everyone’s radar, at least just yet:

Pitt Panthers – Being 17-6 and ranked #21 isn’t a bad place to be, but when the expectations for your team were so much higher, the Panthers seem to be a disappointment. At 7-4 in the Big East, Pitt lost a pair of games in recent weeks that they should have won against Seton Hall and South Florida. Still, don’t count Pitt out just yet: they’ll make the NCAA and they could go deep. A close second Big East surprise is the Uconn Huskies who, like UNC, will probably not make the tournament.

Charlotte 49ers – The Dayton Flyers were expected to waltz through the Atlantic 10 this year as Xavier, Rhode Island, Temple and St. Joe’s lost their most talented players to the NBA last season. But Dayton is 5-3 and in sixth place in the conference with Charlotte leading all-comers at 8-1. Forward Shamari Spears and guard Derrio Green are leading the 49ers effort this season, combining for 31 points per game. Tomorrow night’s game at Dayton is a must win for the Flyers.

Cornell Big Red – The Ivy League will likely never field a national champion, but they usually can be counted on for fielding a team with the potential to slay a giant. Princeton and Pennsylvania once had a lockhold on the conference for smart people, but Cornell is 6-0 and will most likely win the conference if they knock down challenges from Princeton and Harvard. The Big Red’s open seasoning victory at Alabama and five point loss to #1 Kansas has put Cornell on the NCAA conference map.

Lafayette Leopards – Not exactly a power conference but one where the tournament winner receives an automatic bid, the Patriot League has its own surprise in the form of Lafayette. Everyone had the Leopards finishing dead last, but they started out their conference season on top of the league. Now 5-3, Lafeyette is one game behind Lehigh, but within striking distance of the top. At 14-9 overall, the Pennsylvania school may be a surprise entry in the Field of 65 come March 14.

West Coast

I realize that this list is skewed toward eastern teams, but I think that may be due mostly to the strength of the east versus the west. Indeed, when a power conference such as the PAC 10 cannot place a single team in the Top 25, then you know that a shift has taken place. Gonzaga, New Mexico, Brigham Young, and UNLV are the top teams of the west, but the dearth of a dominating team from that area of the country is simply stunning.

Essay contests for high school students

As you prepare to head off to college you may benefit academically and financially by participating in a contest. Private organizations will often run such contests as a way to encourage students to pursue a certain area of study or help them become good citizens.

Generous financial awards can be put to personal use or set aside for college. Importantly, winning an essay, photography, or poetry contest can be worth including on your college application, perhaps proving to be the deciding factor when the review committee considers your own.

We located seven contests worth exploring; please the respective websites for more information. To our knowledge none of the ones we have listed require an entry fee. Some contests recently ended, therefore bookmark their website and be prepared to enter later this year.

The Ayn Rand Institute

Essays based on themes articulated by authoress Ayn Rand as outlines in her novelette, Anthem, and her novel, Fountainhead, are offered to students of high school age. Top prizes are $2000 and $10,000 respectively with numerous runner-up awards granted. Details: http://www.aynrand.org/contests/

The Christophers

High school students with a flair for the artistic can enter the annual poster contest sponsored by The Christophers. Your poster must be based on a theme such as “One Person Can Make a Difference.” Details: http://www.christophers.org/Page.aspx?pid=274

John F. Kennedy Library Foundation

The library named for our 35th president, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, runs an annual Profiles in Courage essay contest for high school students in grades nine through twelve. The winner receives a $5000 cash award plus $5000 deposited to a college savings plan account. Details: http://www.jfklibrary.org

First Freedom Center

Students are asked to write an essay based on a theme supporting religious freedom. The first place winner is awarded a $3000 cash award with second ($1500) and third place ($750) awards also given. Details: http://www.firstfreedom.org/education/students.html

AFSA National High School Essay Contest

The American Foreign Service Association invites high school students to enter write an essay based on foreign relations and foreign policy. In 2010 the theme was “Challenges Facing the American Foreign Service in the 21st Century.” The essay winner takes home a $2500 cash prize. Details: http://www.afsa.org/essaycontest/

The Bill of Rights Institute

The “Being an American” essay contest is open to students and teachers with the first place winner taking home a $5000 cash prize. The top 27 winners also receive an all expense paid trip to Washington, DC. Details: http://www.beinganamerican.org/about_the_contest/prizes.html

Keep the Drive Journalism Awards

Texting and driving do not mix and has been proven to be the number one killer of children. Both a print and broadcast category are offered with students invited to submit articles they’ve printed in high school newspapers or broadcast segments disseminated through in-school announcements. Grand prize is $3000 with second through fifth place winners receiving awards ranging from $2000 to $500. Details: http://www.keepthedrive.com

Photo Credit: Zsuzsanna Kilian

On Thursday, SayCampusLife published information about five college scholarships that are on our radar for the month of February 2010. One of the five has a pending deadline with the other four needing to be met over the coming weeks or months.

Scholarship Refresher

Though we post information from time to time about particular scholarships, it may be good to offer a refresher explaining why college scholarships can spell the difference between affording college, taking on too much debt, or not pursuing a degree in the first place. To that end we will address some of the finer points in order to clear up some misconceptions and help you focus on what really matters:

1. My student does not have to pay the money back. That’s right, college scholarships amount to free money, which means that those funds will offset at least a portion of your college tuition and related expenses. There may be some strings attached, such as maintaining a certain grade point average for multiyear awards, but once the money has been awarded your college costs are reduced by that amount.

2. Scholarships are offered only during certain months of the year. That is partially true. From late fall through winter, many of the scholarships to be awarded for the upcoming academic year require that your application be in sometime between November and the end of March. But there are many other scholarships with later deadlines. Always take note of the filing deadline when applying.

3. I am limited by the number of scholarships I can select. No, that is not correct. You can apply for as many you can handle. But with a caveat: when applying you will need to include an essay, recommendations, and other paperwork. Filling out just one application can require a lot of your time, therefore concentrate on doing a few applications well instead of numerous ones mediocrely.

4. Some scholarships come with many restrictions. That is true. If you read the application requirements—something you absolutely must do—you may discover that you do not qualify. A number of restrictions can be in place including: area of study, grade point average, ethnicity (yes, this is legal), gender, place of residence, you name it. These restrictions are meant to limit who can apply as well as call out certain kinds of candidates the scholarship committee wants to review.

5. Multiyear scholarships are common. Not really. Many scholarships are awarded for more than one academic year, but you are likely to find far more scholarships that are not. One note: scholarships for multiple academic years often are contingent on academic performance. This means that your student will have to show proof of grades each year in order to qualify for the next year.

6. I always hear back from the scholarship committee. Well, usually. However, if there are thousands of applicants you may not get a letter. Instead, you may receive an email notification saying that you were turned down. Check your spam folder just in case. If you are approved, you may discover you have won through a phone call, email message, or a letter to your home. Sometimes people mess up; you may discover that you are a winner when that information is published in the paper or online.

7. My college cannot help me with scholarships. False. In fact, many scholarships are offered only to students at a particular school by alumni and other supporters. Contact your school’s financial aid department to find out how to apply. You may have already received those details along with your financial award letter.

Your Comments

We hope that these seven tips or points cleared up some misconceptions about college scholarships. If you have questions, feel free to ask them by filling out the comment section related to this article. Lastly, please visit our dedicated college scholarship page to begin your search for financial assistance.

Resources

Federal Trade Commission: Scholarship Scams

The University of New Mexico: Scholarship Application Tips

SayCampusLife is committed to sharing with our readers relevant information about college scholarships. Lately, we have been getting a number of inquiries from subscribers asking us about the availability of certain scholarships. Given that the economy remains difficult, obtaining financial assistance in the form of a college scholarship remains important, hence our regular updates.

Since we launched late in 2007, we have featured numerous scholarship opportunities by educational interest, ethnic or family status, as well as funny or weird ones. We will continue to post by category, but in the meantime let’s take a look at some of the new or changed college scholarships available right now.

Important Deadlines

Please click on the respective links for more information. Please carefully read the restrictions and take note of deadlines before applying:

GEICO Achievement Award Program – Insurance giant GEICO plans to present $75,000 in achievement awards to college students across the United States. Available for currently enrolled undergraduate students with a sophomore or junior year status who maintain at least a 3.0 GPA. Awards of $1000 will be given. Packets must be postmarked by February 20, 2010 with recipients notified by May 31, 2010.

Atlas Shrugged Essay Contest – Please note that this is NOT a scholarship. We have added it here because the institute bearing Ayn Rand’s name is running an essay contest that will pay $10,000 for the first place winner. Detailed information is available on the website. Essay deadline is September 17, 2010.

The National Italian American Foundation — For Italian American students who demonstrate outstanding potential and high academic achievements in an area of study of their own choosing. Scholarship awards range from $2,000-$12,000. Each scholarship award can only cover tuition and university-provided room and board. Deadline is March 5, 2010.

USA Funds Access to Education Scholarships — USA Funds, the nation’s leading education loan guarantor, plans to offer up to $1 million to students who demonstrate an economic need. Open to high school seniors, currently enrolled college or professional degree students or incoming college or professional degree students. See site for further details. Deadline is arriving soon: February 15, 2010.

Holocaust Remembrance Project – Please note that this is not your typical scholarship, rather it is an essay project designed to invite students to share why the Holocaust should be remembered. Ten first place awards ranging from $5000 down to $2500 will be given, with additional rewards offered. Funds are to be used for your college education. Deadline is April 2, 2010.

That is it for today. We will be posting additional scholarship information in the near future.

If you are attending college full-time, you may find that squeezing in part-time employment is difficult to do given your busy schedule. Thanks to the internet thousands of college students have access to jobs online, some of which allow you to set your own schedule.

Let’s take a look at seven of the top jobs available for students online:

1. Virtual Assistant – Lots of companies need people who can provide assistance to handle tasks that busy executives cannot handle themselves. A virtual assistant fills the gap, answering phones, writing letters, replying to customer inquiries, using Facebook and Twitter, and a host of other varied activities. All of the major job sites list these opportunities including Monster, Simply Hired, and Indeed.

2. Call Center Operator – Many large corporations have sent their call center jobs overseas, but with mixed results. These same companies have learned that native English speakers familiar with American culture and syntax are much better received by their customers than cheap foreign labor which means that jobs are available. Instead of paying for full-time workers, some companies prefer part-timers who can answer calls remotely. Check the job boards, Craigslist, and related sites for opportunities.

3. Freelance Writer – If you are a talented writer, freelance opportunities can be found online. Write articles, clean up content, and make decent part-time income. Sites such as Suite 101, Freelance Writing Gigs, and Performancing post opportunities for your review.

4. Tutor and Teaching – You can help your peers or younger students who need assistance with their studies. TutorsTeach.com and Tutors.com advertise for people who have a strong grasp of one or more subject areas and are available to work with students online.

5. Survey Gigs – Lots of sites have sprung up purporting to solicit people to take surveys and get paid for them. Though some are legitimate, most are not—for that reason we are not going to recommend a specific site. However, if you find a site who promises to allow you to sign up for free and has valid surveys available for you to take, then you could make a few dollars taking surveys. The operative word here is few so don’t expect to bring in a lot of money.

6. Transcribers, Editors – Talented linguists can take ordinary words and make them work their magic. A lot of people know how to write, but the job of a transcriber is to make these words shine. Demand Studios is looking for content editors while Tigerfish needs transcribers.

7. Language Translators – If you know at least two languages fluently, you can parlay that talent into a job as a translator. Translate documents, provide support to a business, or write new publications in another language. Jobs are posted through the top job listing sites.

Look Around

You may be able to find other temporary gigs through online classified sites including Craigslist or Oodle. Look around—work is out there if you do your research.

The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) arrangement for major college football level programs may be in jeopardy. That is because the Justice Department has sent a letter to Utah Senator Orrin Grant Hatch explaining that it is considering exploring whether the BCS violates antitrust law.

When it comes to the BCS, will justice prevail?

Sen. Hatch has been serving as a US senator since 1977. He is considered to be one of the more influential members of the Senate, serving on various committees and subcommittees including those having to do with finance, taxation, and health.

Utah Utes

Last October, Hatch complained to the Obama administration about the BCS, a topic that President Obama addressed when he was running for the presidency and brought up from time to time since. Hatch is likely acting on behalf of his constituent’s Utah Utes who beat Alabama 31 to 17 in the Sugar Bowl.

Despite being the only team to finish the season undefeated, the Utes were not invited to play in the national championship because of playing in the Mountain West Conference which is not one of the six bowl championship conferences. Despite finishing 13-0, the Utes were never able to prove that they were the best team in the nation, something a playoff system would have given the team the chance to prove.

National Championship

The Justice Department acting on behalf of the president told Hatch that they are examining the BCS structure which currently limits post season play to one single bowl game. 68 teams can qualify to play in one of 34 bowls, but only five of the bowls include teams which are considered to be the top teams in the nation. Of those ten teams, only two are chosen to compete in an unofficial national championship game, with computer tabulations deciding who those teams will be.

One group who would like to see the Justice Department follow through on their review is Playoff PAC, a political action committee who advocates for the formation of a post season playoff system to replace the BCS.

Last fall, SayCampusLife reported the group’s formation whose members have been driving home several points including that the current arrangement is unfair to the players, fans, the schools, as well as to some of the conferences who lose millions of dollars in post season largesse due to the current arrangement.

BCS Bash

Will the Justice Department find success in going after the BCS? They might. And with the Obama administration needing to show some victories following the health care debate defeat, advancing a populist cause may benefit the president.

Twitterati who logged onto Twitter at any point from last Wednesday on discovered a new feature at their disposal. Local trends is here, a way for people to track tweets on a localized level. Specifically, if you want to know what is going on in the area where you live, then local trends will list those tweets for you.

Relevant Trends

This can be a good thing for a number of reasons. While general trends can sometimes be useful, oftentimes they include irrelevant topics, at least those things which may not be important to you.

Sure, Lady Gaga may be someone you follow, but a Twitter user in Norway may not even know who the entertainer is much less care. Now, that same person living in Oslo can find out what people are tweeting about in their city, perhaps giving them a chance to take in an impromptu art show or find a deal at the market.

Twitter’s Jenna Dawn, writing on the micro-blogging’s weblog last Wednesday said, “As Twitter evolves, and more people share what’s happening in their own world, we want to provide another way for people to discover topics that may be relevant to them. Last week we began to slowly roll out a new feature called Local Trends to expose what people are talking about on the state and city level, and today we’ve fully launched so everyone can use it.”

Campus Trends

So how does this translate down to the campus level? Well, for starters the local search is limited to just six countries right now – Ireland, Canada, United Kingdom, Mexico, United States, and Brazil. It also only tracks fifteen cities which means yours may not be listed. Don’t fret, because there is a tiny message at the bottom of the sign up section which says, “Don’t see your location? We’re working on it.”

If you happen to live in one of the cities listed and you do sign up then you may find something of interest to you. But on the campus level, a lot of “city noise” may crowd your tweets out unless everyone is tweeting about tonight’s basketball game, Professor Grimwald’s bow tie, or today’s coffee special. Though the local trends feature seems pretty limiting right now, imagine how useful it could come in if there is a campus emergency – your local tweets will most likely help everyone get the world out in mere moments.

Try Trendmaps

Of course there is always Trendmaps which already spots local Twitter trends. But when local trends is fully implemented, your campus happenings will likely find their place in the mix.

Apple iPad arrives March 2010.

Rumors have been swirling for weeks that the Apple iPad would be released, but when the news went down this past Wednesday there wasn’t much else that people wanted to talk about.

Too bad that it upstaged President Obama’s state of the union address that night!

Steve Jobs

In any case, the Apple iPad is big news demonstrating once again that the magic touch still works wonders especially where Steve Jobs is concerned.

Just in case you missed the announcement or were too busy taking notes in your Renaissance Literature class (yeah, right) let’s take a look at what the Apple iPad is all about:

Tablet computer – Featuring multi-touch technology, the iPad has a 9.7 inch screen and is as thin as similar products such as Amazon’s Kindle but with way more features. You will be able to surf the net, read newspapers, play games, watch movies, read books, and so much more. Plus, you will get all of the apps made for and available from iPhone. According to Tech Crunch, the iPad will put the Kindle out of business – it is that far advanced!

Usability advantage – You will hear plenty to comparisons between the iPad and Kindle, so get used to it! Seriously, what will likely rock for most users is being able to swipe through pages when reading a book whereas with Kindle you have to click a button. Maybe not a big thing for some people but if you’re planning to use iPad extensively your using pleasure will be enhanced thanks to its size, bright colors, and easy navigation.

AT&T connection – Although I am not personally found of AT&T (hey, I use Verizon), Apple has decided to stick with this carrier in order to give users access to the internet. When the product first begins to roll out in late March, wi-fi access through AT&T will be available. Weeks later, you will be able to buy an iPad that will feature wi-fi and 3G coverage. The only drawback, which may prove to be a major one, is that AT&T is struggling to keep its network up as customer demand for the iPhone remains strong.

Price point – Apple is boasting that its $499 price will compete with the Kindle while offering far more amenities. While I won’t dispute these claims, they do carry an important asterisk with them. First of all, that $499 price is for wi-fi access only. If you want wi-fi access and 3G coverage you will pay more, perhaps much more depending on whether you want more than the standard 16G of flash memory. The top of the line model will retail for $829 and then there is the matter of internet service which will cost you between $15-29 per month. Unlimited coverage could cost you a mint with a two-year contract.

Battery Power

Weighing just 1.5 pounds, the half-inch thick iPad is phenomenal for all that it can do given its size. 10 hours of battery power should be enough for most on the go users who can easily recharge their unit when it is not in use. However, with Bluetooth connectivity me thinks that serious users will want to purchase a supplemental lithium-polymer battery to have on hand just in case.

Source: Apple Computer, Inc.