<p>... If my grades are a little bit below the average eople who are finalists, and my extracurriculars are nothing spectacular and out of the ordinary ?</p>
<p>Is it worth the time and effort or should I just apply RD to the colleges I want?</p>
<p>All of them are QB partners.
Bowdoin, Wesleyan, Vassar, Davidson.</p>
<p>You will miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. </p>
<p>Apply and see what happens.</p>
<p>If I get rejected, I can’t apply RD ?</p>
<p>If you get rejected from Questbridge, you can still apply RD.</p>
<p>And even if you became a National Finalist, but didn’t get Matched, don’t lose hope–by that point, you will still have <em>plenty</em> of time to apply to Early Decision II to the schools that offer EDII dates, like Vassar, and then get admitted through that process. </p>
<p>I was a 2012-2013 QB Nationalist Finalist and ranked Vassar as one of my schools, was not matched, but have recently been admitted to Vassar through the EDII round. Though I didn’t rank any of your other schools, my process to applying to Vassar through EDII was relatively straightforward and easy. Many of the QB partner schools–in fact, I believe, the majority of them do, save for the “big name” schools, like the Ivies–will allow National Finalists to apply using their QB application, that is, instead of you applying to the QB partner schools through the Common Application, you forward your QB app instead, saving you time, money, and also allowing you more essays to express yourself (an additional three versus the one CA essay). </p>
<p>I know I’m getting a little ahead of myself, but I also remember how stressed I was just even thinking about these possibilities (and this was before I had even submitted my QB app, period!) But I’d like to just say, even though it sounds complicated, “forwarding” your QB app really isn’t. There’s a list of all the QB schools, even the ones you didn’t rank (and if you want to, yes, you can submit your QB app to be considered for EDII/RD), and you click off the boxes corresponding to the schools you want to forward your QB app to. You just have to check what each school specifically wants, since sometimes they don’t want just your QB app, but also their school-specific supplement in addition, like Vassar. Then, you just have to use your CA account to submit the supplements to the school after you’ve forwarded your QB app, which can be done without sending an entire CA app, btw. (I was incredibly confused about that part, haha.) </p>
<p>With the schools that guarantee meeting 100% demonstrated need, you will not be left wanting financial aid wise, especially if you were a National Finalist.</p>
<p>Btw, my stats and ECs aren’t terribly impressive compared to the average CCer either–28 on the ACT and writing, 3.8 unweighted GPA, 5 for AP Language, 3 for AP Biology, and I volunteer weekly at my local library. I’m also not an URM, unless you count Southeast Asian as an URM. And no, I didn’t stumble across the cure for cancer or anything else extraordinary. I think my only “hooks” were that I’m first-gen and write well. Other than that, I’m from a really normal, middle to upper-middle class suburban community and I happen to come from a low-income family.</p>
<p>SO! If you feel like you don’t have a shot… Apply anyways. You’ll never know otherwise. And also, QB really forces you to be on your game, which is great because by the time all your friends are finally starting their college applications, you can laugh at their misery…and then go back to cramming for that AP Calc test tomorrow…which you will, let’s be honest here, probably fail…</p>
<p>Actually, that’s me, and I should probably get going since I have a research paper to finish! (If there’s any errors or typos, sorry! Where I live, it’s getting pretty late… Did I mention you should definitely invest in a regular sleeping schedule? Preferably one that will give you at least 7 hours of sleep… Take it from the HS senior who just crashed for 15 hours two days ago to compensate for a week of 4 hour nights.)</p>
<p>I agree with the posts above. Even if you aren’t a finalist, you can use your QB app for many of the QB partner schools. It is well worth the time investment.</p>
<p>Thank you infirmitas, you just inspired me a whole lot.
I will considere questbridge.</p>