Hello everyone! I hope you are all well. I am planning on applying to QuestBridge this year for the National College Match. But after doing my in depth research, I don’t think I meet there Financial criteria, which is kind of discouraging. Maybe some of y’all could give me some insight and let me know.
Family of 7 (four siblings) income: ~$124k (used to be lower in 2018 it was 73k)
Savings & Investments: Added together is about 42k.
Circumstances: My mom works two jobs as a nurse in two different hospitals and the $124k is all her income. My dad is a retired veteran of 20 years, he doesn’t work. My mom lost her job in 2018 and after a family trip to Nigeria my dad caught malaria, which is why my mom took on two jobs to support the family and pay my dad’s large hospital bill. My family also Financially support family members in a foreign country, and I have two older sisters currently attending college as freshmen (they are twins).
Here is a brief overview of my academic profile if it’s relevant.
GPA: 4.13 W, 3.91 UW, Rank 17 of ~281 students
SAT:N/A taking it this Saturday hopefully.
AP Tests: All 3s- Chem, Human Geography, Seminar, and World History
Race: African-American
Overall, QB finalists come from families making less than $65,000. The median income for a family of 4 is $68,000, and for a family of 7 is about $84,000.
Based on your income, your family likely makes too much.
However, with that income, and that number of people in your family (as well as having siblings in college), I would say that you have as much of a chance being accepted to a great school with a very good financial package as you have being selected for QB.
About 6%-7% of all QB applicants are QB scholars, and another 8%-9% are accepted RD to one of the colleges on their list.
Is your course set considered rigorous in your high school?
I will say this based on our experience with Questbridge. There is no hard top cutoff but your family’s income is way on the high side. We didn’t hear of anyone with a family income that high. Also, it seemed that most of the schools wouldn’t match with a student unless they had a zero EFC, which is something to keep in mind if you’re accepted as a finalist. Our EFC was low but not zero and my daughter didn’t match, but then was accepted ED to a school from her list about a week later.
@milgymfam May I ask a few questions? Questbridge is new to me, so I’m trying to understand more how it works.
(1) In your daughter’s case, if her EFC is not zero, and Questbridge does not match because of that, what role does Questbridge play in her college admissions process then?
(2) Since it’s known that your daughter’s EFC is not zero with certain schools (I assume from running the NPC beforehand), does Questbridge just not even try to match, at all, with those schools? Does Questbridge focus on trying to “advocate” for her at others schools?
I guess I’m a bit confused on exactly what role Questbridge can play - sounds like there are different conditions where Questbridge plays different roles???
To original poster- your family is not low income. However, it seems like you may have hardships, and along with two siblings already in college, I won’t say not to apply, but if you were to be accepted it would probably be the period after the match process. Also, if you are applying, there is not a lot of time left, so make sure your essays are strong, because once you submit you cannot change it.
@sonatarhia Questbridge does not pick the colleges that a student is matched to. The student ranks the schools they are interested in, and then the colleges themselves pick the student.
Oversimplified- questbridge spotlights high achieving low-income student applications to top performing colleges where they may not have noticed the applications before.
The questbridge website goes into depth about its purpose and what it does, and does a good job of explaining it.
My child’s FAFSA EFC was low, though not zero and he did match to his 1st choice school last year.
Unfortunately, this is a family choice which most schools and programs consider it as a family decision. The schools and various programs don’t view this support as a hardship. They don’t subsidize contribution choices made by the family. So, if your family chooses to use their income to support extended family members, that’s on your family, not on Questbridge nor financial aid services.
There are some questbridge schools that will match without a zero EFC- my daughter just was very narrow in her choices. She only ranked three schools. I guess it’s debatable what it does if you’re not matched- some people say it’s a boost for admission and some say it’s not. I guess I will never know there. When it comes to the aid package, since questbridge isn’t a scholarship itself, the aid is going to be basically the same (all questbridge schools meet full need). One thing that will be different is that with a questbridge match there is no parent contribution (and no loans, but in our case the school was no loan for our income bracket anyway)- so by being accepted ED the school was expecting us to pay our EFC. We were lucky in that my daughter had another scholarship that pays that for us (along with her student contribution). As for trying to match, questbridge is just a connector between schools and qualifying students. If the student is a finalist and lists a school, the student is presented to the school.
I agree that it is probably too high (family income). I have heard that the avg for a family of four is about $43k a year.
Make sure that you are applying to a wide range of schools & that your parents run the Net Price Calculator for any school you are interested in.
Do not fail to apply for and hit the deadlines for any free programs in your own state whether that is free community college and/or four year schools. The need based aid is likely to go out the door early this year. Don’t be limited in your choices in spring, keep a very well rounded list.