Help Ranking Colleges for National College Match!

Paying for College Access Programs (Questbridge, Posse)
1

So I’m doing the National College Match by Questbridge, and though we don’t find out whether we’re finalist or not until Nov. 1, seeing that I’m a College Prep Scholar, and 69% of us become finalist (and I’m above average for the average finalist), then I like my chances. That’s the easy part though; the hard part is actually matching. So with NCM, we rank colleges based off of which one we’re the most interested in, and if any of the colleges we rank accepts us, then we are binded to go there. If my #2 college and #7 college match me, then I must go to my highest ranking one, which is #2. I can only rank 12 schools btw.

Things to consider about me:

Want to major in Bioengineering/Biomedical Engineering, so that colleges strength in the field makes up like 50% of my decision making. Also, I highly, HIGHLY doubt I’m changing my major (if anything I’ll just change it to Chem. Engineering, Biology, Chemistry, or Biochemistry).
I want the best college feel possible, ie which college has the most lively campus. Which student body is more involved?
This ties into the previous question a bit, but which school has the most to offer OUTSIDE of academics.
I want to be near a city, so I won’t be isolated in my school (much how Atlanta is in Ga Tech’s backyard, or Vanderbilt is right next to Nashville). HOWEVER, I do NOT want a campus that is actually INSIDE the city (if that makes sense?)
Student athlete (football), so sports is definitely a biggie (yes, yes, I understand engineering is hard and takes up time, and so does sports, but I’m very disciplined and up for the challenge)
Live in Atlanta

If you have any other questions, just ask.

Anyways, these are their partner schools https://www.questbridge.org/college-partners . Duke and Stanford are my two big ones, I’m leaning more so towards Duke at the moment, but I’m open to reasons why Stanford should go first.
The next batch of schools I decide to rank are Rice, Northwestern, and UPenn. Right now I’m feeling 3. Rice 4. Northwestern & 5. UPenn, but again, I’m open to where I should rank each school.
Those are the only 5 schools that if I match with, I will have absolutely no qualms about attending.
However, I’m still on the fence about a few other schools. Yale, Columbia, and Princeton are world renowned schools and can open a lot of doors, but Yale & Columbia’s BME programs aren’t exactly the strongest (in comparative to the top BME schools. It is still better than 99% of most schools). In fact, Princeton doesn’t even have BME/Bioengineering major, but does have one of the best Chemical Engineering programs. If I get accepted through RD, I won’t at all be mad, but I’m not so sure if I’m willing to take the risk of passing up a shot at Duke & Stanford’s RD for Yale, Columbia, & Princeton.
I’m also even more iffy about MIT, Notre Dame, UC Berkley, Vanderbilt, Dartmouth, UVA, & USC.

Right now, I have:

  1. Duke
  2. Stanford
  3. Rice
  4. Northwestern
  5. UPenn

on the fence about

  1. Princeton
  2. Yale
  3. Columbia

iffy on

  1. UC Berkley (only real aversion is that it's a public school, and a rather large one
  2. MIT (I know, I know, it's MIT, but I visited the campus and didn't really like it's feel. And no offense to all my MIT students/Alumn, but it's campus is just really ugly. I've heard that though they do have a top notch program, that they're not as undergraduate focused as other schools [key word, HEARD]. Lastly, they don't seem to focus on athletics [& they're D3], which will be my primary time consumer outside of school. Despite all this, I'm not completely against ranking it. The school just wouldn't be my first choice).
  3. Vanderbilt
  4. Dartmouth
  5. Notre Dame
  6. USC
  7. UVA

Of course, I have to become a finalist first, but any thoughts?

2

@IsaacTheFuture My D17 is trying to decide her list. Go to youtube and type in QuestBridge. There are a lot of videos. This one, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK4tfiAalBo&list=WL&index=19 gave her some good info. If she’s a finalist, which she too should become, she’s thinking about only ranking her #1. You have to really be comfortable with any of the schools you rank.

3

@Momtaro That’s the thing… I’m only TRULY comfortable with 5 schools. My parents are all “Yale, Princeton, MIT” because of their prestige, but for me I just don’t really feel it (though I’m starting to grow a soft spot for Princeton).

Also, I noticed I put UC Berkley on there when I met USC (though I also have that, lol).

4

@IsaacTheFuture well, not to disagree with your parents. I told my D17 that she made it this far, made the gpa, the test scores, rank, etc… and it’s her future, so she should go where SHE’s comfortable b/c you have to be happy. She doesn’t care about the prestige, although graduating from a school like that carries it’s own benefits. We’ve looked at every school, what type of programs they offer, and the courses within, and she really likes what she’s read about Tufts. She’d be ok with Notre Dame, Stanford, USC, Vandy, and many others, but she really wants Tufts. I guess we’ll make a final decision soon. I’d check out those videos. A lot of kids don’t rank any and then use QB and go regular decision. We need to read more about that. Best of luck to you!

5

@isaccthefuture A few thoughts:
I would go spend some time on the website of these schools.
If location is important to you:
Upenn, Columbia, USC are “in” the city, big cities. All 3 have awesome campuses in many ways (and I like all 3 a lot) but each of them will have city in all directions and can only be “escaped” by a good 30 minute + drive/train. Of those 3 only USC has “big” sports. Ivy sports are fun, and football can get decent crowds, but sports there are nothing like Pac 10 or Big 10 or other D1 leagues.
Stanford + Princeton are small-town/extended suburb schools that require a 45 minute trip to get to the “city.” Stanford = big sports. Princeton = Ivy
Northwestern is very suburban but you can get to, say, Wrigleyville or State Street in 30 mins. Big Sports
Dartmouth is in the sticks and Ivy. Great school but the most different in vibe from your other choices.
Harvard seems to fit your location requirements better than Princeton. Urban, but nice campus. If you visited MIT I’m sure you saw Harvard as well. Ivy sports of course.
Yale, if you consider New Haven an attractive city, does not feel as “land locked” in the city as Penn, Columbia or SC might. Very particular vibe, I think. Most similar to Princeton in “feel.”
Tufts is a good balance for Boston of urban but not “city locked”. As is Boston College. BC sports are “bigger” than at Tufts.
Hopkins is a very good biomed school that is more of a campus on the edge, or at least closer to the edge, of Baltimore. Might be worth considering. Lax is D1 the rest is D3.
Berkeley, urban, but nice campus. Not as “land locked” as others. Big sports.
UCLA would be another option. Not as “urban” as USC, but LA is all around it.
The others I can’t speak to very authoritatively.

Other things I would consider, beyond “opening doors” (all of those schools you listed will open a lot of doors if you do well and make good use of what they offer.):
Where do you live now? How often will you want to go back there?
Where do want to live after graduation?
What school(s) do you think you will have the most success at?

Hope this helps a little. Really can’t recommend enough spending lots of time on the websites for schools you can’t visit.

6

Although both Duke and Stanford draw from essentially the same pool, Stanford feels a bit more diverse (or has diversity more worked into its DNA) and is less fraternity oriented than Duke. That may or may not matter to you. SF is available by train, but I am guessing that few students are in and out of the City with any regularity. It’s comparable to going into NYC from Princeton. If you like football, the PAC 12 is exceptionally fun. Really, these are all great schools, and what you give up at one will easily be offset with something else.

7

@CaliDad2020 Thanks for the great input.

So I currently live in Metro Atlanta in a city about 20 miles south of Atlanta. Unlike most kids who want to completely get away from their parents, I actually want to be within a REASONABLE driving distance of them (6 hours max), so Duke does just that. However, outside of Duke & Ga Tech (which is a little TOO close to home), none of my top choices are anywhere near where I live.

Honestly, I actually wouldn’t mind coming back to Atlanta after graduation. It is a phenomenal city with the best STEM organizations in the south east.
I think I’d have the most success at Duke, Rice, or Stanford. Duke is in Durham, a reasonably flourishing city, and is only 30 minutes away from Raleigh. Granted, Raleigh is no Atlanta, but is still a pretty big city. Also, despite being an elite, top-10 University, it doesn’t really have that “geeky” feel that other prestigious Universities have (though it is still geeky compared to your average State U).
Rice, much like GaTech, is a college town with a city in it’s backyard. I’ve heard wonderful things about it’s undergrad and how it really focuses on them. Also heard they have some of the nices college kids out there.
Stanford has a wonderful campus, with a flourishing student body. However, it’s quite isolated.
All these schools have phenomenal BME programs and D1 sports, so that’s a perk.

8

@issacthefuture I would say if your instinct is to be reasonably close, I’d certainly give that some thought, especially if you are going into an academically challenging program. Also, there is often a lot to be said to having an alumni network that is geographically close.

Stanford does have a beautiful campus but so does Duke. I haven’t spent time in Raleigh-Durham in many years, but hear great things.
Sounds like the schools on your list that best fit the “travel” criteria are:
Duke
Emory
Vanderbilt

And the rest are great schools. (the other two that fit your “urban but not too urban” criteria are UCSD and UWash-Seattle, but neither are near Atlanta and while the bio-engineering programs are great at both, they are less overall “sexy” names than most on your list. WashU - St. Louis is probably 8 hrs? from Atlanta. They have a good rep for BioMed. CMU in Pittsburgh is probably a 10 hr. drive minimum. But you’ve got a lot of choices.)

If you stay on the east coast/eastern mid-west you’ll have a shorter (and hopefully cheaper) flight if you do want to get home once in a while. I don’t know how you handle academic stress. I have a kid at school right now and watching her friends all over the country at many of the schools you are considering, there have been more than one who have flown home at some point just because the stress was getting to them.

Sounds like you have done your research and have a great list of schools. My only suggestion at this point is again to really research the schools you have not spent time at and try not to get caught up in the rankings. Dig deeper. Look at profs and size of the department and courses required. Think about whether you want a core curriculum like Columbia or complete freedom to select your non-major program like other schools. Try to dig into the details as much as you can. The more you learn, the more you’ll likely “feel” that one program fits while another doesn’t.

Good luck! Sounds like you have a great approach and attitude.

9

Actually, you will learn if you are a QB finalist on Oct 20th. Everything needs to be in to the schools that you ranked by Nov 1st. The deadline to rank by is Oct 13th.

Based on your post and explanation, I would only rank the few schools that you are absolutely certain about. You do not want to end up bound to a school that you are only “iffy” about.

Based on your list, I would rank them as follows… 1. Stanford 2. Duke 3. Rice 4. Northwestern 5. UPenn.

So I think that your order makes sense generally. I would just switch Stanford to first over Duke. To me, it simply wins out on a # of fronts… overall strength of academic programs, reputation, weather/climate, location, access to internships/jobs, athletic programs, college experience vibe, etc.

Stanford is also non-binding, so if you Match on Dec 1st, you can still compare acceptances and financial aid offers garnered through RD and postpone deciding until May 1st. For that matter, Yale, Princeton and MIT are also non-binding. Of course, if you do Match, it will only be to one - the highest you ranked that also agreed to match with you.

Have you actually visited all 5 of these schools? If not… be careful about that binding match commitment. We only visited two schools on your list, Duke and Penn, but our opinion about each was more negative after visiting both schools. My daughter remained interested in Duke, but she had concerns about Durham and its location and split campuses after visiting. My daughter removed Penn from her list altogether after visiting there. She also had lesser opinions regarding Yale and Columbia after visits, while seeing Princeton and Brown each rose them on her list.

If you have not visited and will not be able to, you should at least try to view photo galleries and virtual tours online and review student alumni reviews and survey results at https://colleges.niche.com/rankings/best-colleges/

Good luck…

10

Thanks for all the input guys! Finding out Princeton, MIT, & Yale are non-binding just made my decision a whole lot easier, since there’s absolutely no harm in ranking them. That moves MIT above Columbia.
Rice is really starting to grow on me, and I’m planning on taking a tour at some point.

Right now, I have:

  1. Duke/Stanford/Rice
  2. Stanford/Duke/Rice
  3. Rice/Duke/Stanford
  4. Northwestern
  5. UPenn
  6. Princeton
  7. Yale
  8. MIT

on the fence about

  1. Columbia

iffy on

  1. Vanderbilt
  2. Dartmouth
  3. Notre Dame
  4. USC
  5. UVA
11

Another important thing that I should have probably included is that I’m a conservative. Will I have a hard time “fitting in” at any of these schools with that in mind?

12

@WWWard I’m trying to help my daughter with her list. We watched some youtube videos and most of those kids did not rank any schools and went RD. I contacted a QB liaison at one of the schools and I must have asked too many questions b/c she stopped responding. What did your daughter not like about Penn? That’s on my daughter’s list b/c it has a vet school. We were only able to visit Notre Dame and Rice. The liaison did not list any and did RD. I’m beginning to think that’s the way to go. It frees you from the commitment. Do you know how many you can apply to RD if you are a finalist? I’d appreciate your thoughts about this. THANKS!

13

@IsaacTheFuture I’m just going by what a student from the West coast said. She wants to go to Washington & Lee b/c it’s uber conservative. They host some type of ‘mock’ republication debate or something like that. She was from CA and she said all the West coast schools were radically liberal and she wanted to experience the other side. That was her commentary.

14

@Momtaro Well, it was a driving road trip that we took right after Christmas a couple years ago. I took both of my daughters around to a # of elite schools (all are QB partners as well). Ironically, they both seemed to agree on their opinions about each school visited: Duke, Penn, Princeton, Columbia, Yale, Brown.

Basically, the entire drive in toward Penn was rather depressing. Philadelphia was very unattractive, and not the type of urban environment that my kids could see themselves being comfortable living within. None of us liked the area surrounding Penn. The campus itself was fine, and there is no questioning the school’s academic strength in a # of areas, but the setting/city was the main turn-off. Hours later we were at Princeton, and the transition between the two schools could not be more dramatic… like night and day.

Duke’s campus was impressive, but it is actually split into two, with buses connecting the freshman campus to the main one. The area surrounding Duke though was a little sketchy. Durham itself was just not all that appealing. But Duke remained on both of their lists. Princeton was the most impressive campus overall, and the small city surrounding it is very nice. But it is a small tranquil community, and that may not appeal to everyone. It is an idyllic suburban area that seems very well maintained. Columbia is rather small it terms of its main campus size and seemed cramped. Neither of my girls liked the idea of attending college in NYC after visiting. We also drove around NYU. But we are from a suburban area in FL, so their mindset may not allow for a comfort level there in NYC. Yale’s campus is impressive, but New Haven is not. The setting around Yale seemed a little suspect. But Yale remained on their list. They both really liked Brown. The campus is nice, and Providence, while urban, just had a better vibe and feeling. It is a smaller and better maintained city. They felt like they could see themselves there. So, after our trip, only Penn and Columbia were removed from consideration.

To me, it is simply too great a gamble to rank binding schools unless you have actually visited them or conducted a tremendous amount of research - including virtual tours, etc.

With QB, you can rank up to 12. You can apply for free, as a QB Finalist, to all 38 RD. Of course there are other charges… sending test scores, CSS Profiles, etc. But at least you can skip all those high application fees.

@IsaacTheFuture As for being a conservative and comparing that to your list… you may then be most comfortable at: Duke, Rice, Princeton, Vanderbilt, Notre Dame, USC and UVA. None of these colleges lean more conservative, as very few do, but you at least will not be totally isolated at these few.

15

@Momtaro - my understanding about Questbridge Match is that you aren’t locked into an Ivy, only into a non-Ivy. So your daughter could easily list a bunch of Ivies on her list along with Tufts, and the only one she would be locked into is Tufts. I do want to caution you that many many finalists do not get matched. I’m sure you can find the exact numbers on the site somewhere. I don’t know enough about Questbridge to know if you can simultaneously apply outside of the Match - you should look into that as well.

16

@GossamerWings @Momtaro

Actually, only 4 QB college partners are non-binding when ranking… Stanford, Yale, Princeton and MIT. The other 34, including the other Ivies, are binding.

You are correct though in that most finalists do not get matched. Only around 12% last year matched.

If participating in the National College Match, even if you only list non-binding colleges, you are still not allowed to apply ED or EA elsewhere… only RD.

This is from their website…

"College Match applicants who rank colleges cannot apply to other colleges through Early Decision, Early Action, or Single-Choice Early Action. College Match applicants who do not rank colleges, or who are not selected as Finalists, are free to apply to any colleges for Early or Regular Decision.

Exceptions to the QuestBridge Early Application Policy:

  1. Students may apply to any college or university that requires an early application for eligibility to special scholarships or programs, as long as the admissions decision is non-binding.
  2. Students may apply to their home-state public college or university with a non-binding early application option, as long as applying to QuestBridge does not violate that college’s policies.
  3. Students may apply to any college or university with a non-binding rolling admission process."
17

@WWWard Thank you for a most informative reply! We live about an hour from Austin in a city of about 50k people. We go to Houston several times a year. She hates the traffic. She and her dad went to the Admissions Conference thing in Chicago, and she hated the traffic there too. She said she wouldn’t want to go to Northwestern, where the conference was or U Chicago. They drove to tour Notre Dame and she was ok with ND. We keep trying to tell her she wouldn’t like living at Columbia and some of the other schools right beside big cities. But she’s 17. Of course I’d love to have her go to Rice, I grew up in Houston but it was a lot different then, and I also have family there still, but they don’t offer any type of animal biology/zoology courses. She was chosen for the fly in program at Tufts and that will help a great deal. If you don’t mind my asking, where did your daughters end up going to school?

18

@momtaro You’re welcome.

I have this strange theory… that people from California, Texas and Florida are ultimately best-suited to just those three states. (NC would be the next alternate) They just have a lot of similarities. Personally, as someone who grew up in FL, I can only see myself happy living in one of those three places… lol.

Ultimately, and ironically, my daughter chose USC. She did not try to match with any schools, wanting to maintain all options. She is a junior there now and is very happy with her decision. Daughter #2 (a HS Senior now) has already decided that USC is her top choice as well. She has already applied to a total of 13 schools though… including Rice and UT-Austin. I could see her content in Texas. She only ranked USC, Stanford and Yale… because she really wants to go to USC.

To me, Chicago is highly preferable to NYC… as a city overall. As for universities though, D2 is only interested in Northwestern and not UChicago. Both UChicago and Columbia have core curriculum requirements, which seems too harsh/restrictive.

Has your daughter considered Vanderbilt? It is my daughter’s best friend’s top choice. She plans on pursuing the biological sciences there. My daughter applied there too RD.

19

IMHO your theory may not be so strange. lol! Vanderbilt is on her list as we make it smaller and smaller. Truthfully, I’d prefer she go to Texas A&M! She’s a Nat’l Merit Semi Finalist, should be, no guarantee, a finalist, and A&M will cover 40% of her expenses and they have specific Foundations she’d interview with that could cover a lot more. There’s her Vet School. But, dad, myself and her brother went there so naturally she’s balking at the idea. I think QB is great and I’d love for her to get a free, almost free great education, but she really doesn’t know what she’d be getting into by going to some of these cities and being so far away from home.

I’ve only been to the North East once myself and I thought it was great, but I wasn’t looking at colleges. We keep talking about the weather too, and she just says she’ll cope. Going from wearing shorts on Christmas Day to the snow in Boston to ME is a big deal. I know it will work out, I’m just trying to give her more input from other people who have experienced some of these places.

20

@momtaro

My daughters had a similar nonchalant attitude about coping with the weather up north too before we actually went there during late Dec and into Jan. Any college north of Princeton in the NE is going to experience winter weather that will come as quite a shock to someone from the south. There is no escaping that reality check. And its not just how cold it is for a 2-3 day trip… it is the duration. It is cold and dreary for weeks and weeks. And unlike being in high school, college kids walk from building to building and often walk great distances outside from dorm and apartments, across campus, etc. I went to Hopkins in Baltimore and that was more than cold enough. Northwestern is even far worse than the NE. The wind chill adds to the misery index considerably.

I think that my D2 is hoping for California mainly and then Texas… and really nothing more north than Duke or Vandy as a back-up. She was even anti-USC, not wanting to follow sis, until she visited. Now USC is the place.

To me… seeing in-person is critical. I could never recommend ranking a binding school via QB unless the student in question has actually visited. Its why D1 did not rank at all. She had not seen enough schools to be sure by then. We mainly visited schools over the winter break afterward.

Good luck… only 6 more days to decide on ranking order…