Advise for a Non-Finalist

Paying for College Access Programs (Questbridge, Posse)
1

<p>I know this might be a little late but could someone give me genuine advise. I wasn't selected as a finalist, and admittedly I was a bit disappointed, but I see this as another obstacle to overcome.</p>

<p>What would be the benefit if I choose to go forward and let questbridge forward my application? I know the biggest drawback was that I would have to pay the fees associated with each college, but I have fee waivers through College Board. However, I would only be able to apply to at most two partner colleges, my financial situation has stiffened at home over the past few weeks</p>

<p>How is it possible for me to still let colleges know that I am a low-income student (my mother could make less than last year's income (~$16,000)) who's gone through various obstacles in his life? I know questbridge does an exceptional job at highlighting these areas. I want to talk about how my father's death impacted me academically when I was little and how my first failure that I overcame was being held back in first grade, and that I went to a far greater rigorous high school and was still able to manage to maintain high grades, last year.</p>

<p>In essence, I am really asking if questbridge was the absolute last chance for me to even be considered at top colleges. I feel as though colleges will not consider me as attentively as I would have had I been a finalist. My scores are sub-par (I will be retaking the SAT (have a 1720) and the ACT (have a 27), but I did get better scores in my october tests a 770 in Math II, 740 in Spanish, but a 640 in Chem). I do have a lot of extracurricular activities and have done more community service hours (now 100 hours), I actually posted a thread way back explaining my credentials (if I ever figure out how to create a link I will). But really i think what hurt me more was that one of my recommenders did not submit her recommendation in on time (she actually had a very good excuse, and I forgave her, I even still asked if she could still submit her recommendation for regular decision elsewhere).</p>

<p>If someone could please give me genuine advise that would be really appreciated, thank you for your time. Thank you!</p>

2

<p>Hfavila- First of all, I want to say congratulations on overcoming some serious obstacles in your young life. Your desire to pursue higher education is commendable! You need to take some time and look at some of the partner college on the QB website. I just looked at two of them, Trinity and Colorado College, both of them waive the application fee for non-finalists. Colorado College actually encourages non-finalists to forward their QB applications. So, if I were you, I would check out the application tab under some of the liberal arts colleges. Find the schools that waive the app fees for non-finalists. If they seem like a good match for you, apply!</p>

3

<p>Thank you, I did actually receive e-mails from both those colleges, and Colorado College those seem like it would be worthwhile, not so sure for Trinity though.</p>

4

<p>I don’t know anything about Trinity, but Colorado College is an excellent school. My son knows several people who go there. Not sure what you want to study, but my son’s friend is pre-med at Colorado College. What about Oberlin, Amherst, Carleton, Rice etc…? At least for my son, all the schools who contacted him offered to waive the app fee. My son was not a finalist and Rice contacted him via e-mail to say that they already had his QB application and all he had to submit was the supplement. I wish you the best of luck as you move forward.</p>

5

<p>Thank you, I am going to apply to Rice, I am from Texas, and I might look into Amherst.</p>