<p>Around this time last year I was at the Yale College prep.
I was told how amazing I am and what a select group I am a part of.
Though my stats were nothing amazing(29 ACT and 3.7 GPA) the college prep gave me a humongous confidence boost. Its partly my fault and partly QB's fault since they gave me a travel grant. Not to mention I was one of only 100 who were selected for the Amherst telementoring.
I really thought I didnt need the special Extra curricular, standardized test scores or GPA since QB college prep and awards really boosted my confidence. Not to mention that at the college prep all they talked about was how important your essays and recommendations are.</p>
<p>I applied to 15 schools (11 through National match with QB since I was a finalist), ranging from Yale and Princeton to Grinnell and Colby college(not QB school). I really thought I had a good chance at most of these schools mostly due to what a confidence boost I had gotten. Boy was I wrong.
I applied to schools way beyond my scope. Of the 15, I was accepted to 1, wait listed on 3 and rejected from the rest.
It was a big wake up call and I hope its serves as a warning to you.</p>
<p>DO NOT THINK YOU HAVE A GOOD CHANCE AT ANY SCHOOL. Neither Grinnell (50% acceptance rate) or UVA (35% acceptance) accepted me. I was extremely lucky to be accepted at Hamilton College which has a 24% acceptance. </p>
<p>Summary: MAKE ADAMANT that you do not put all your eggs into one basket. Even though I got the grant, the telementoring, the finalist status, and what I thought was a good range of colleges I was only accepted to 1.
Please make sure you have more safety schools. Make sure that you do not let QB give you too high of an ego. Make sure that you solidify your positions.
You never know what colleges are looking for, make sure you apply to MANY with MANY good safeties. By safeties I do not mean your local college but rather schools like Hamilton or Colby which are prestigious yet have a moderately good acceptance rate.</p>
<p>Interesting post, I thank you for your perspective.</p>
<p>Regardless, you were given amazing opportunities that not everyone has access to. You must’ve had a pretty stellar college prep application since you received so many awards from Questbridge. Per chance do you mind giving some advice about filling out the College Prep application and comment on your telementoring experience? (I’m an incoming junior who’s considering applying) I would greatly appreciate it.</p>
<p>@You don’t need a high GPA(and more) to be a finalist. A guy with 4.7 GPA/$200,000 annual income wouldn’t be a finalist. The reason is —you don’t need help from QuestBridge. You can apply any college by yourself. A guy with 2.5 GPA/$10,000 annual income can’t be a finalist either. The reason is —QuestBridge knows none of the top partner colleges will pick you. @ However,you do need a better GPA(and more) to be matched by these top partner colleges. Questbridge picking its finalists is based on the “need” but these colleges will only pick the best from the list provided by QuestBride.
That may explain the story of Fargaad123.</p>
<p>ec, you are talking out your a@@ and aren’t serving any good to the QB applicants who potentially benefit from the program. You obviously have NO idea what QB is, or their track record in helping high achieving, low income students. There have been students accepted to, and also “matched” with the same stats as the OP to QB partner schools. My daughter was a telementor with QB for 3 years and her mentees had excellent acceptance records, many with similar stats to the OP.</p>
<p>OP, I’m sorry your admissions process didn’t go as well as you would have hoped, but I’m sure you will thrive at Hamilton. Good luck.</p>
<p>One of the QB college prep things my kid was awarded in 11th grade was the telementoring. (was also a QB finalist this year) There was almost no value in the telementoring for my kid as we already knew more about the college app process than that particular telementor. In a different household with little to no parental assistance or a too-busy school GC, it might be a lot more helpful so be sure to use it to it’s full extent if it’s awarded to you. My kid did have several contacts with the telementor but as I said, no added value came of it for our household. I’d like to think it could be very helpful to most other QB students who use it though, so be sure to apply for it and to take advantage of it if this is awarded to you!</p>
<p>I think a pro-active student could get better help by joining the “parents of the high school class of xxxx” thread for their graduation year in the parents forum on this web site. You would end up with multiple adult mentors who would take you under their wings and help with your many questions about applying to college. Many have already helped their older kids thru the college app process, some will have even used QuestBridge before.</p>
<p>sharker: as far as advice goes, its quite obvious that the essays and recommendations dominate if you meet the minimum criteria for academics and income. So focus on those.</p>
<p>As far as the telementoring, it was completely useless for me. I was never given a good perspective by my mentor. I felt like he should have snapped me out of my delusions but he did nothing. He was very busy and was mentoring more than one person which could explain it but I did not have a good experience.</p>
<p>I want to make one thing adamant: I would have never applied to Hamilton if it wasnt for QB. I love QB and what they have done and encourage everyone to fight through the tough application process. Its a nice challenge and through writing the essays you may learn a few things about yourself.</p>