Some background:
I have an older brother(21) three younger half brothers (17,16,11)and one half sister(13) who is informally adopted by another family members. The brother in question is the 16 year old, rising junior in HS. His father died of cancer when he was young and he’s always been in full custody of our mother, who quite frankly has a whole bunch of issues. Without getting too much into it, she lost custody of them and was in rehab for a while and they (my half brothers with no father) were put in foster care. Things are better now, except we’re dirt poor (lol). My little brother is very bright and it’s been his dream to go to a really good school (specifically MIT is his top choice.) He has a 3.9 UW GPA right now and for our HS, he has good consistent extracurriculars (such as show choir, sports, band). We don’t have much guidance with colleges or applying, and I want to try to help him. I don’t know much about this program but I wanted to get to learn more so i could relay info to him.
Specifically:
What exactly is Questbridge?
How intense is the application process?
What can he do to make his application stronger other than getting a great ACT?
When should he start worrying about applying? (Like I said he’s a rising junior, so in 10th rn)
After he potentially applies, what is the process like?
I’m sorry that these questions are kind of basic and I’m sure I could have found the answers if I lurked more but my brain is starting to hurt trying to figure it out. Also, the HS counselors in his HS are only good at feeding kids to the satellite University of Wisconsin schools. I don’t want my brother to end up like me and be accepted to good schools but unable to afford them, either. Thanks
If your brother is a rising junior, I think you should look at College Prep first. You can scroll around their website which has a lot of good information, and how to help them through the process.
Questbridge is a non-profit organization that helps low-income students have access to top-tier universities and quality education.
For College Prep, usually about 30 - 35% of applicants become college prep scholars. For National College Match (Senior year), about 25 - 30% become Finalists.
Questbridge is pretty holistic when looking at their entire application so they'll take into account academics, test scores, essays/short answers, teacher recommendations, income, and household circumstances. Questbridge is pretty good about letting you express yourself as a person so the key to a strong application is depth.
Questbridge has two separate programs: College Prep (for juniors) and National College Match (for seniors.) College Prep helps him out on preparing for the National College Match since it gives him a head start on what it's like to go through the college application process (especially going through essays.) If he gets College Prep Scholar, he'll get access to resources that will help him become a strong applicant come senior year (Ex: Admissions conference, all expenses paid campus visits to Questbridge partner schools, and many more.)
It's kind of like going through a college application process where you fill out information about yourself and write the essays required. Questbridge is pretty good about helping you through the process with their Questcasts and gives advice in what makes the strongest application possible and what they look for.
There are two programs he can apply to. College Prep is for juniors only while National College Match is for seniors only. He can apply to both but he doesn’t have to. College Prep will help with National College Match though.
@somehmonggirl Only juniors can apply to Questbridge College Prep Scholars. Only seniors can apply for National College Match. Since your half-brother will be a junior, he should apply for College Prep Scholars.
Okay, I see. It would be beneficial for him to apply to the College Prep Scholars first, then. Is this something that he will be able to do by himself? He won’t have any support in preparing his application… Though hopefully by applying twice he’ll get the hang of it the second time around… lol
Questbridge will have free webinars that he can sign up for during the application process to help him through the application and give advice as to what they are looking for. He will have to manage his time carefully though since the application is open for one month (2nd week of February to 3rd week of March -ish.)
@somehmonggirl I don’t know if you still need this advice, but your brother should definitely check out the LEDA Scholars program. Here’s the website ------> http://ledascholars.org/
Based on what you said, your brother sounds like a good candidate for the Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America (LEDA) summer program for the upcoming school year. It is only applicable for JUNIORS.
My sister applied to this summer program when she was still a junior and got accepted into this summer program. Her trip expenses were all paid for by the program. She spent six weeks at Princeton University with the other 99 leda scholars. (Note: Only 100 juniors are selected for this selective summer program) There are three rounds to the application.
OH MY! If he likes MIT, he should definitely apply for the MIT OEOP programs. They open in November-ish. Also, Carnegie Mellon has the SAMS program and USC has the Bovard Scholars Program. Also look at Hamilton Scholars, TASP, Leda Scholars and a few others I can’t think of. Tell him to email local Universities to see if he can do research with them.
DM me and I can help you some more! I’ll give you my email there. I was in this spot last year and hopefully, we can help him be the best he can be.
