<p>Greetings! I am new here at CC, but I have a dilemma, and I would appreciate some assistance. </p>
<p>-I am a junior, who would almost certainly qualify for QB finalist status and has grades/ECs on par for ivies (i know, no guarantees (it's a crapshoot), but I mean I'm not a below-average applicant).</p>
<p>-My top choices at the moment (in order) are
Harvard
Yale/Princeton
MIT
Stanford
Columbia/UPenn</p>
<p>I have two options (or, rather, have narrowed it down to two). </p>
<ol>
<li>Apply to Harvard SCEA and do QB RD.</li>
<li>Utilize the National College Match QB has to offer, and rank the non-binding schools. Reapply ED MIT and RD to the rest if not matched. If matched with a school, have the huge weight off my shoulders (be over-the-moon happy) but still apply to Harvard RD (and have a lesser chance).</li>
</ol>
<p>Pros/cons:</p>
<p>Option 1: If I get in, well obviously it's my top choice so I would be set. If I got rejected or deffered then I would have wasted the early round, and be worried about RD.</p>
<p>Option 2: I would be passing up on a better chance for my top choice. At the same time, I would get to apply to 4 schools early (3 of which would normally be Single Choice) and if not matched, I could still get an MIT ED and reapply to the rest RD, so no concrete rejections. </p>
<p>Would would you do? Do you have any suggestions? Also, would the influx of applications to Harvard early this year leave me with a better chance at Yale/Princeton?</p>
<p>Thanks for reading this (and hopefully replying ;) )</p>
<p>Yes I know. I realize I wrote MIT ED, but I meant an early decision at MIT. As a QB applicant if you’re not matched with MIT, you can still apply EA, and therefore get an early ‘decision’ on your application status. </p>
<p>I should have been more clear, but it doesn’t really change the point of the thread.</p>
<p>Is MIT your only choice for early decision using QB? Do you get to know even ahead of Dec 15th with QB?</p>
<p>There was someone in our local high school in 2010 who did MIT early action or QB decision but got into Harvard in RD and ended up going there. Most of the ivy league schools give you full funding even if you dont get QB.</p>
<p>Allow me to clarify. If I opted for choice 2 I would rank Yale Princeton Stanford and MIT, and await the decision whether I was matched or not (Dec 1st). If I got into any of the schools, I would not be required to attend, but I would have the option to accept until May 1st. However, if I was not matched, MIT would give me the option of being considered for EA (decision by Dec 15th). I could also reapply RD to YPS, but could not get an early answer from them.</p>
<p>Regarding the full funding, I would probably, as you’ve said qualify for a full ride at the ivies. My biggest concern is getting in. XD</p>
<p>Sounds like Harvard is not part of your QB match? </p>
<p>You have a good selection of doing EA to 5 good schools at once with one that may match. Not sure why you would want to settle for a single school in Harvard in a process which is not clearly defined yet for SCEA (no one knows if Harvard will fill 500 seats or a 1000 in SCEA). It sounds like you get a second shot with MIT if QB can’t match by dec 1st.</p>
<p>The whole process is a lottery. So multiple schools followed by one EA is a much better choice than a single lottery ticket.</p>
<p>Finding out by Dec 1st gives you more time to prepare for RD.</p>
<p>Yeah unfortunately Harvard is not a QB partner 
. I agree with you on the whole ‘better chance to win the lottery’ idea. Yet a small, perhaps irrational, voice in the back of my mind is yearning to apply to Harvard (especially after they changed the policy right before I apply!) </p>
<p>Thanks for you help!
I’m curious as to what other CCers may say (although I would be surprised if anyone disagreed with your logical suggestion XD)</p>
<p>hopefully you are not getting a SC feedback from me! </p>
<p>This is what I would tell my kid but I have the same problem (no QB) - my kid is stuck on a SCEA school as opposed to doing multiple open EAs like MIT, Caltech and Chicago to see if one would admit!</p>
<p>You can become a QB finalist and skip the initial match round, just using your application during the regular decision round.</p>
<p>It’s really really tough to get accepted to any of the 4 non-binding schools during the Match Round unless you’re a URM with low income. Yale, for example, will not take you during the Match Round unless your EFC is zero. Your odds are much better of getting placed in a binding school – but then you won’t have a shot at Harvard.</p>
<p>Most QB finalists get placed during regular decision, and the financial aid isn’t all that different. My son got into Brown, Williams, Amherst and Northwestern. The first two expect about $3000 a year plus 7-8 hours of week at a campus job during the school year. Northwestern expects $5000 a year without work-study, so both packages are close to equal if you can land a campus job for those few hours a week.</p>
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<p>My income is so low for the most recent tax return that my EFC is definitely zero. </p>
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<p>Yeah I’ve heard that before. I am not a UMR, but I am a foreign citizen. My income, as mentioned above, is also very very low. </p>
<p>So LoremIpsum, do you think my chance of being matched is as low as getting in Harvard EA?</p>
<p>Thanks </p>
<p>By the way, Congrats to you/your son on all the acceptances</p>
<p>I think QB is the better bet because you get matched to multiple schools, rather than having to count on just one admitting you. Go read the Harvard results thread and see how you stack up with the people who DID NOT get in–some incredibly impressive people in that set.</p>
<p>Yeah that’s scary, so many talented people rejected (although I am sure they got into somewhere great). I suppose I’d have a chance at Harvard, but I wouldn’t be surprised by a rejection either (based on that thread). However, since it’s my first choice my reasoning was that I would have a better chance EA than RD, and I wanted to do everything I could to improve my chances. Besides, LoremIpsum said the national match wouldn’t give me that much greater of a chance.</p>
<p>I am having a similar dilemma. I wish that QB gave us more statistics about the admission rate during national match for the non-binding schools. With Harvard’s EA being relatively new, it’s hard to predict the outcome. </p>
<p>I am not sure how many kids apply to Yale early with 0 EFC, but seeing as that’s the case with you (+ the foreign citizenship) you may have a chance at Yale. The same can be said for Harvard, for similar reasons.</p>
<p>Would QB have these kind of statistics if I e-mailed them? Or Yale/Princeton for that matter?</p>
<p>I’m not really sure what to do. =</p>
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<p>That’s a tough question; if you also apply to non-binding Notre Dame, then QB probably holds the advantage; without it, perhaps Harvard EA holds the edge. Can I assume that, based on your CC name, you are a female interested in engineering? If so, you may have an URM-like advantage, especially with MIT. If neither of your parents ever went to college, that’s also a hot button that makes you desirable to top colleges.</p>
<p>If you really want to get into Harvard most of all, however, then apply there EA. You will almost certainly be placed with some of the QB schools in the regular decision round, if your stats and ECs are good, and the financial aid for the top schools will be pretty close to free in either case.</p>
<p>One advantage of QB is that some schools may fly you out at their expense to see the campus before you make your final decision. Both Brown and Amherst bought my son plane tickets to visit them during open house events.</p>
<p>Thanks for replying!
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<p>I am not really interested in Notre Dame, at all. I wouldn’t want to waste anyone’s time or get in over someone who really wants to go. </p>
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<p>Yes! Either physics or engineering. I have the ECs to back it up, and the science/math classes, too. I am also working with a physicist at local university and will continue to do so throughout the summer. I suspect that will lead to Intel or published work. </p>
<p>As for my parents, only one of them went to college. My mother has an engineering degree (but when we moved to the US she had difficulty getting her degree certification because she had to work full time (and more). </p>
<p>Harvard is my top choice, yes, but let me put it this way: I’d rather not get matched and apply to MIT EA or reapply to Yale/Princeton/Stanford RD, than get rejected from deffered from Harvard. This may seem obvious, but I’m trying to play the odds a little too. It’s a tough choice… I know the RD admissions rate was ~6% this year, and in the past their EA was around 20% if not more. I know it would be like 17% or less now, but it’s still a huge difference. In fact, despite the 0 EFC, I doubt Yale’s odds would be much better.</p>
<p>If Harvard is as kind in EA as they were back in 2005, the worst you can do is get differed in EA.</p>
<p>Harvard Gazette: Early Admission numbers return to past levels ([Harvard</a> Gazette: Early Admission numbers return to past levels](<a href=“http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2005/12.15/01-early.html]Harvard”>http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2005/12.15/01-early.html))</p>
<p>I remember one other person from our local high school two years ago who was matched to MIT early in QB but got into Yale in RD. Does nt QB have a summer program after junior year that puts you in one of these colleges?</p>
<p>The answer is simple. If Harvard is your first choice, apply early there. You can apply to QB and just ask them to forward your application to the RD, without ever going through the Match process. Unfortunately, you’re required to submit the Common App for all the schools you’re interested in, and there’s evidence that they don’t look at or take the QB app into consideration. It’s unclear.</p>
<p>On the other hand, you’d have the opportunity to apply to four schools early, but of course you can only get Matched to one. So whether you do Harvard EA or the Match process, you will get into at most 1 school early. Since Harvard is your first choice, it makes more sense to apply to it early. If you’re so inclined, apply to QB and, if chosen as a finalist, opt out of the Match and ask them to forward your application to the RD round. I think you can also ask them to send it to the RD round for other schools as well (and they might be more likely to look at the QB app).</p>
<p>(For the record, I participated in QB programs in high school and have worked for them while at Stanford)</p>
<p>QB’s summer programs are the Harvard SSP and similar ones at Yale, Brown and others. It’s just the ones you have to pay for so they’re not very prestigious (QB pays for you if you get the scholarship, which has a lower rate of success than Harvard’s admission rate XD). </p>
<p>Thanks for the article, texaspg. Seems like that year 20% was the acceptance rate and 71% were differed (wow!). Less than 4% flat out rejected. Hm… that changes things a bit (assuming that this trend will be true this year) since I doubt QB has a higher rate of acceptance (combined for national match). Also, being differed is about the equivalent to reapplying RD - with less work- except for MIT which would offer an early decision.</p>
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<p>phantasmagoric, you make a going point about applying to my absolute first choice. I would apply to QB anyways, because I heard it gives a boost in admissions to any college (even their non-partner schools). You say there is a possibility that the QB app would be ignored during RD; if that’s the case, do they consider QB as an award and that you’ve been pre-screened by a reliable source, or is it equivalent of applying independently?</p>
<p>Yes, I’d say that it’s an award, if you are chosen as a finalist. I think perhaps the biggest advantage of QB is also the simplest one: it’s an immediate flag that tells the admissions officers “low income and/or first-gen student, look here!” The elite admissions offices these days are looking for these types of students, but unfortunately none of them use an application that explicitly asks for your income. It also flags you as a high-achieving student, since as you said, QB pre-screens applicants. It’s definitely not the same as applying independently.</p>