I was just informed that the state automatically signed us up for free school lunch. My 10th grader is a straight A student, however, she doesn’t test well so I am expecting her SAT’s/ACT’s to be good but not stellar. She is taking all honors and 3 APs for her junior year. Her type of college would probably be a small to mid sized LAC or University. We are living on savings and I’m worried we’ll run out of money by the time it’s her turn. I have one entering Wellesley next Fall and one who will likely go to Community College the year after that. Then my little one.
I think a school like Amherst would be too hard/intense for her, however. She toured Dickinson and really liked it and I can see her thriving at a school like that, or Skidmore, or even Clark, but I don’t think we’ll be able to afford them by the time she goes. I feel terrible just thinking about it because she has worked SO hard. She’s a stellar student and I don’t have to prod her to do anything. But since she doesn’t test well, I don’t think she’ll get the types of scholarships my oldest got. It’s a shame because she really is the best student in our family. I’m guessing her ACT will be somewhere between 27-30. She hasn’t taken anything but the PSAT yet (I can’t remember her score but it didn’t approach NMF range.
We have not always been low income and live in a middle class community. We are white. I went to college and my husband did not. He is trying to get a new business off the ground.
As far as I know there are no other kids in her school on Questbridge. I have read about it a bit here but really don’t know too much about it. Could Questbridge help my daughter get into a good college with lower test scores? Are we candidates for it or no?
Thank you for any advice!
There is a QB sub-forum inside the Financial Aid Forum, that would be a good place for you to collect some information.
Ask the guidance counselors at your daughter’s school about their experience with QB. If they have never had a student go through the process, surely they have colleagues at other schools who know something about it.
I know a nearly straight A student who had lots of good ECs and volunteer activities who couldn’t get an ACT above 29, white, middle class, rural, went through the QB process but didn’t get a match (did get waitlisted at a couple QB places in the second round). The student ended up at one of the CTCL LACs with a very sizable scholarship and participated in the Bonner Scholars program there.
Your daughter should take a nice long look at the test optional list at fairtest.org Some of those have very good financial aid.
If you look at Questbridge’s website, you see that the average (or median, I can’t remember) ACT for a Match finalist is a 28, which means your daughter falls in the range test score wise. From what I understand, Questbridge places the emphasis on income level, and chooses from that pool the applicants who could reasonably make it to a top university. Based on the way you wrote your question, I understand your daughter is a current sophomore going Junior. I would recommend trying for the College Prep Scholarship that Questbridge also runs which would open up next February for then-juniors. This will give you a sense of whether you are a strong candidate for the College Match. Since you qualify for free lunch, I’d consider you financially within the ballpark for both Questbridge programs as well. I applied for the College Prep Scholarship and I just got notified of receiving a full scholarship to go to Emory’s summer program a few days ago, and I do not qualify for free lunch.
Hope this helps!
Thank you! I am looking through the website. Congrats on the summer program!
@happymomof1 Thanks, I did not see that forum. I wasn’t sure where to put this!
You should apply. I don’t think there is a hard cutoff in regard to income or test scores. My son had excellent test scores, but our income was on the high end. He was selected for the College Prep and Match programs. He was accepted at a couple of partner schools and wait listed at a few others. The Financial Aid packages from the partner schools were great (COA less than $5,000/yr). He decided to attend a large, state university on an academic scholarship, but the QB experience was definitely worthwhile.