<p>I see only 2% of Questbridge college match recipients had incomes of over 60K. Is it probably a foregone conclusion that a 70K income for a family of 5 in an expensive city (with some medical costs) is way to high to apply for Questbridge?</p>
<p>It’s a tad bit high but given your circumstances I would argue that you still have a shot. It’s free to apply, so why not bother?</p>
<p>$70,0000 in income may be too high for a match, but not to make finalist. Our income is 20% lower, but there are only two of us, and my son is a finalist this year. There is no downside to applying, and an early start on applications is a good thing.</p>
<p>someone on this board who was a finalist had an income of something like 300K during last year’s (or possibly the year before) cycle. They were also about 3 million dollars in debt.</p>
<p>Whoa! Now that’s quite a story. I still feel like we are ok (even though I’m getting stressed about all the things that are falling apart in our house) and that Questbridge should be reserved for those who are really struggling…I dunno. Maybe you’re right-it can’t hurt my son to try.</p>
<p>That’s QuestBridge’s job to decide who deserves the money, so go right on ahead and let them do their work. If your son becomes a finalist, it’s because they saw that your family needed it and that you guys deserved it. ;D</p>
<p>My mother has a Masters degree and over 99% of finalists are either first generation college students or have parents who started college but did not finish, but I was able to become a finalist despite the 1% odds.</p>
<p>Those who are exceptional students and can effectively explain their economically disadvantaged status have a chance regardless of surface numbers.</p>
<p>John,
Congratulations on being a finalist! That’s awesome. Your story is encouraging and I appreciate you sharing it here.</p>
<p>I think what I’ll probably do is encourage my son to apply to their junior program (I’ve forgotten what it’s called) this spring and just see what happens.</p>
<p>We are middle class and we make in the high 70s but we seem to be struggling more than we did a few years ago-just a variety of things, I guess. yet we are incredibly blessed that my husband has a stable job (and has only been injured twice on the job, which is a good statistic). </p>
<p>He attended college for maybe a year or less, and dropped out. He was from an extremely poor working class family. I graduated from a state school after 7 years. Our son definitely has grown up in a working class/blue collar family/area but has taken advantage of opportunities in our large city (math circle, free university symphony, great chess club)that others in our community probably don’t know about. I guess that’s why my son enjoys teaching violin in the elementary school where he does because he knows they wouldn’t have the opportunity to learn about it otherwise.</p>
<p>Well, I digress…Thanks for weighing in, John.</p>