<p>Before I ask this question I just want to state that yes, I know that I should not have considered Questbridge without thinking about all the options, yadda yadda, etc...</p>
<p>So Questbridge announces Finalists tomorrow and I am pretty nervous; In a rare case, I DON'T want to be a Finalist.</p>
<p>I (now) understand that applying ED through the Questbridge Match Process creates a VERY low acceptance rate to many of the schools. ** I was wondering IF I become a Finalist, will I be able to apply ED to one of the schools I ranked OUTSIDE of the Questbridge Match Process? ** </p>
<p>I know that the ED acceptance rates for most of the schools are much higher than the Questbridge Match acceptance rates, and don't necessarily want to put myself through that much scrutiny and selectivity.</p>
<p>Hopefully I can get a real answer to this question, thanks guys!</p>
<p>I’m not 100% positive, but I believe once you’ve submitted the match agreement form you can not do ED to any schools, including the ones you ranked.</p>
<p>It’s true that you cannot apply ED to any school while you are in the match process with QuestBridge. However, you should still hope to be a finalist. </p>
<p>The match process is the smallest percentage of students that end up as Quest scholars. Many more students send their QB applications into regular decision and get accepted at the same schools that did not match them.</p>
<p>In addition, a number of schools (Northwestern is one of them) will invite QuestBridge finalists who didn’t match anyone to convert their application to an ED application - and then you have the benefit of the in-depth QB app and the benefit of ED. A friend of my son did this two years ago and is a Quest Scholar at Northwestern despite not matching.</p>
<p>My son was a QB finalist two years ago, did not match, but got a likely letter from Notre Dame (his #1 school) inviting him to convert his QB app to EA at Notre Dame. He was accepted EA in December. He’s now a very happy Quest Scholar at Notre Dame on a very affordable FA package, which was also very good the second year (he is responsible for an additional $300.00 sophomore year over freshman year).</p>
<p>Last but certainly not least - from the QB FAQs: “if you are selected as a Finalist, you will have the opportunity to rearrange or remove schools from your rankings.” </p>
<p>So don’t panic now! Being a finalist is a good thing and can only help you.</p>
<p>Now you can go back to stressing about the announcement this afternoon (along with my daughter lol).</p>
<p>Thank you so much for this response @confetti247! Definitely helped me realized that I do want to be a Finalist and will anxiously await the announcement!</p>
<p>@confetti247, it sounds like your son was an athletic recruit as well as a QB participant? Was that straightforward to coordinate? Did you simply continue contacting coaches as usual, and let them know he was a QB applicant? How did that work, exactly? Did you feel there was any disadvantage, with regards to recruitment at non-QB schools, or anything like that? I hope it works out for your daughter!</p>
<p>@ItsJustSchool - no, he wasn’t an athletic recruit. He got a letter that was sent within a day or two after the match decisions. It basically said “We can’t match everyone because that’s very selective but we think you’re what Notre Dame is looking for and we’d like to convert your application to Early Action. You’ll have a decision in December and we offer excellent need-based financial aid.” So it was essentially a likely letter, although I know that’s often applied to sports. Sorry for any confusion! </p>
<p>My daughter is not a finalist, so I’m bummed (but hopefully hiding it well - I’m more upset than she is!). Good luck to everyone else!</p>
<p>desfropres1, there are a couple things to remember about NCM especially compared with regular ED. With match you have to chance to rank up to 8 schools. Your chances of being accepted therefore increase with every school you add. You can’t just look at the numbers for each individual school unless you’re just ranking that one school. The numbers that colleges publish for their ED admissions are highly inflated by all the niche acceptances that fill that group. ED is a chance for colleges to begin to build a class, and it benefits them in many ways to accept athletes and legacy students early. So for ED you’re competing with many students who have their place in the class somewhat guaranteed. And lastly the number of QB students that are being accepted in the match round increases every year. I read an article recently in which Yale announced that they were increasing their match acceptances starting this year because the program has been so successful. Until now the average # of NCM students has been around 50 but they are planning to accept 75-80 this year. It is not wise to use QB historic admissions numbers to guess future trends since QB is growing and changing every year. </p>
<p>Another thing to remember is that NCM is NOT like ED, in that you cannot be rejected! You will simply be moved to the next stage of admissions: ED II or RD. EDI may look like it’s giving you better odds of acceptance than NCM but you’re also running the huge risk of being rejected forever from your favorite school. With QB there are nO rejections and you have 2 more chances to put your application in front of them. Don’t be confused by simple numerical comparisons and look at the big picture.</p>