<p>lol… #200</p>
<p>ExcitedG: QB doesn’t give you the scholarship, the college does. Furthermore, read about each individual college involved in the program. Some are giving a 4-year ride for Match, while others are not. The ones who are not are simply accepting you early and giving you the package that matches up with your EFC, then each year thereafter you would have to reapply for aid. </p>
<p>As far as what happens if you get Matched with a school that gives a 4-year ride and then you get another outside scholarship – you could ask the school in question (although that’s a little premature and presumptuous at this juncture), but logic dictates that you can’t just throw that extra money in your pocket and buy a flat screen. You get 100% of college paid for, not 125 or 150%.</p>
<p>lsjny09, by all means apply to Stanford. The QB app is designed to allow you to explain difficult life circumstances. Your guidance counselor can also address them in his or her recommendation letter. Stanford is very committed to holistic application consideration. Looking through last years Stanford’s results threads will show that clearly. At the same time, you, like all QB applicants, should be applying for some safety schools where you should be accepted and can afford to go.</p>
<p>On to Financial Aid…</p>
<p>First of all, as of today the College Match Scholarship Package pages for each school haven’t been updated yet for this year’s Match process. You will want to read the pages for current info when possible. I can’t overemphasize the importance of doing so.</p>
<p>FA gets confusing. It really helps to read every single thing you can on the QB website for the schools in which you are interested. QB provides a screened pool of low-income applicants to the colleges. The colleges can each set their own parameters of what qualifications they will look for within this pool. This <em>can</em> include income parameters, but doesn’t have to. Many schools may choose to limit the actual College Match to students they feel will have a $0 EFC AS DETERMINED BY THE SCHOOL for all four years. For example, read last year’s Yale’s QB Match page:
“Yale will only offer admission through the National College Match to students whose parents qualify to make zero contribution to college costs. (Students who are not eligible for a zero parent contribution will be considered for admission to Yale in regular decision and will still qualify for extremely generous aid calculated to meet full financial need, with no loans required.)”
However, Yale is very generous in determining this parental zero contribution:
“For families with total income less than $60,000 per year, Yale typically does not ask parents to make any contribution whatever toward the cost of a Yale education. In assessing need, Yale does consider family assets, business ownership and other special circumstances in addition to annual income.”
Having a $0 parental contribution for schools is not necessarily the same as qualifying for a $0 EFC on FAFSA.</p>
<p>As of last year, Stanford, Princeton and Yale offered QB College Match students and QB Regular Decision students the same generous FA package that they would receive if applying without being part of QB. Most likely they will continue to do so this year. I think Penn does a great job of explaining their policy for Match students on the Penn College Match scholarship page ([Partner</a> School: University of Pennsylvania - 2009 College Match Scholarship Package](<a href=“http://www.questbridge.org/cmp/schship_pkgs/penn.html]Partner”>http://www.questbridge.org/cmp/schship_pkgs/penn.html))
"Because family situations can often change significantly from year to year, Penn normally re-determines a student’s expected family contribution each year. For that reason, QuestBridge students will generally be considered for a four-year Match Scholarship only in those cases where the expected parent contribution is $0, and it appears unlikely that it will change over time. The only change in the Match Scholars expected contribution over their four years will be an annual increase (no more than $100) in the Federal Work-Study component. "</p>
<p>Unusual Circumstances or Incomes in the Higher QB Range</p>
<p>One of the great things about QB is that it takes into account special circumstances that impact a family’s finances. If you look at the stats regarding College Match recipients ([National</a> College Match Program: 2008 College Match Recipient Profile](<a href=“http://questbridge.org/students/profiles_class2013/stats.html]National”>http://questbridge.org/students/profiles_class2013/stats.html)) you will see 5% had household incomes above $60,000. My guess is that this group includes at least some students with unusual circumstances. </p>
<p>My hunch is not a lot of families in the applicant pool fall into this category, but wanted to draw attention to it for those that do. If your family falls into this category I’d use some caution in picking QB schools to which to apply for the College Match portion of the program. Specifically, I’d ask Columbia and Emory if they can provide a FA estimated package prior to applying for a Match to these schools. The two schools are binding, but they don’t necessarily guarantee your parents will pay nothing. Following is the info posted for these schools for last year’s Match. The info for this year has not been updated; please check all schools carefully when available!</p>
<p>From the QB Columbia College Match page ([Partner</a> School: Columbia University - 2008 College Match Scholarship Package](<a href=“http://questbridge.org/cmp/schship_pkgs/columbia.html]Partner”>http://questbridge.org/cmp/schship_pkgs/columbia.html))
“The QuestBridge College Match Scholarship will look like the package below. Students from families with total earned income less than $60,000 per year, typical assets ($250,000 or less) and straightforward financial situations who are admitted through early or regular decision will be offered similar financial aid packages. The difference for students from families with slightly higher income or with significant assets would be an increased family contribution based on the financial situation.
PLEASE NOTE: Columbia will re-evaluate each student’s eligibility for financial aid each year; Columbia QuestBridge Match Scholars will need to submit updated financial information, and financial aid awards will reflect any changes in financial circumstances.”</p>
<p>From Emory: ([Partner</a> School: Emory University - 2009 College Match Scholarship Package](<a href=“http://questbridge.org/cmp/schship_pkgs/emory.html]Partner”>http://questbridge.org/cmp/schship_pkgs/emory.html))
“Emory is committed to awarding aid based on financial need determined by a thorough review of each family’s circumstances. Financial need is assessed using institutional methodology and the 568 Consensus Approach. Education is the primary responsibility of the student and family. Emory will award financial aid to supplement, not replace, the family’s ability to pay. Our goal is to assist as many families as possible in a fair and equitable manner while meeting demonstrated need. Aid packages must be renewed every year…
QuestBridge College Match Scholars and students from families with total incomes less than $50,000 and little to no assets can expect a financial aid package that looks like the package below. Families with higher incomes and assets may see slightly different results.”</p>
<p>That “little to no assets” provision of Emory’s seems to me like something that many home-owing families would exceed. Personally, I as a parent wouldn’t want my child to lock themselves into attending a school which may require me to pay something. I would want my family to have the freedom to compare FA offers during Regular Decision. So, just be aware this can be an issue. Again, I want to emphasize this is based upon last year’s info and things could change for this year. </p>
<p>Outside Scholarships</p>
<p>The College Match Package pages for each school discusses how these are treated. I think each school allows you to apply these to the student summer work portion and term-time job portion, but check the pages for details.</p>
<p>A few more things…</p>
<p>Once you are an admitted student I believe every school has you submit FAFSA, CSS Profile, etc. each year you are receiving FA. I’ve never heard of an exception to this process. </p>
<p>Just because a school may limit the College Match to students with a certain income level doesn’t mean, from what I can figure out, that they don’t take a look at QB apps from students outside this range. I remember reading a post last year from a student who got a phone call from a MIT admissions officer saying they couldn’t offer him a match due to income, but he was an outstanding candidate for admission.</p>
<p>Thank you, 2blue!! That is wonderful information and I appreciate you taking the time :)</p>
<p>2blue: You may be wrong about the reapplying for aid each year AT ALL QB SCHOOLS. At last year’s Yale conference, some people made a point of asking, “You mean to tell me that if I win the lottery in my second year of college, I STILL go for free?” and the answer was “yes,” with regard to those schools that were offering a 4-year free ride for Match. Bear in mind (again) that schools like Penn, Princeton, and Yale (and a few others) do not offer a 4-year free ride for Match. But schools like Bowdoin and Trinity do.</p>
<p>^ I agree with you, 4th house, that at schools which guarantee a particular package, a person would receive that package all four years even if something like a lottery were to dramatically change their circumstances. (Although I think if that happens, they should volunteer to forego the package, :)) What I meant was that each year a QB Match Scholar has to submit all the FA forms. For many, a Pell Grant is part of the package and that requires filling out the paperwork annually.</p>
<p>Is “access not authorized” supposed to be appearing at this stage?</p>
<p>Since I’m only planning on applying to Stanford early, should I do the questbridge application separately and not choose any schools, and then apply to Stanford Early Restrictive?</p>
<p>Doesn’t Stanford still have nonrestrictive ranking for QuestBridge National College Match?</p>
<p>Great info here, thanks everyone! I have a question about “low-income” status. My family had been low income for a number of years (for most of my grade school career, one or both of my parents has been unemployed) BUT just last month my dad finally got a better paying job (above $60,000) so will I no longer be considered low-income because of my dad’s new job, or will I still be low-income because we haven’t earned that much money all these years?</p>
<p>The question is not how much your dad made last week or last month; it’s how much did your family earn last year – 2008.</p>
<p>^^^^^^^^^^</p>
<p>That is the information you will need to provide for the application, but you will need to provide the schools with Fasfa and or Profile for 2009 before you matriculate. If your dad just got this job, would his income still be “low” since it would be for less than 1/2 of this year? I’m not sure how schools would treat this, considering you were well within the guidelines when you applied, but may not be after. It has been said that some schools require a certain $0 EFC or to at least be Pell Grant eligible. You might want to e-mail QB with your question.</p>
<p>@tokenadult: “MIT, Notre Dame, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale…are not binding”</p>
<p>Questbridge will, itself, recognize applicants even if they are above the income range. However, in regards to being matched, you need an EFC of zero as stated above. Check your EFC with the calculator linked below. If you estimate some of the numbers, you’ll get a bit of a different result than with exact numbers, but if you are at the zero level you’ll probably know.</p>
<p>I, for one, am one in a ten person family (eight kids) and my dad is the breadmaker. He’s a teacher and makes a little over 60K gross per year. (It’s terrible: he’s been teaching for 11 or so years, too) With the amount of people in my family, we’re really eligible for the full package. Circumstances such as this are recognized by QB, and that makes sense, as their ethic is to remove the dis from disadvantaged and the umbrella from financial aid policy. Because sometimes people get wet when they all try to fit under one umbrella.</p>
<p>[EFC</a> Calculator: How Much Money for College Will You Be Expected to Contribute?](<a href=“http://apps.collegeboard.com/fincalc/efc_welcome.jsp]EFC”>http://apps.collegeboard.com/fincalc/efc_welcome.jsp)</p>
<p>So, if your family definitely has $0 EFC, which would make you a good candidate for the Match, but you really need more time to pull up your gpa, test scores, and secure good teacher recs, do you think it is best to skip the Match and just do RD through QB? In other words, should the same philosophy be applied as is used with ED, where if you’re not competitive enough you should just wait?</p>
<p>And on Scripps’s website, they say that the 2009 QB app. will be available Aug.1, but it’s not :(</p>
<p>Well, the app should be available on the Questbridge website as well. If not, I wouldn’t worry: they’re probably having technical difficulties.</p>
<p>To be honest, I would say you should apply ED through Questbridge. I know a girl who was matched to UPenn and a guy to MIT, and neither were amazing in test scores. If you’re facing a 2000-2200 SAT score and a 3.6-3.9 UW, then I would NOT worry about it. You can always send in new information for the RD, and you get the added chances of ED.</p>
<p>So I was going to Match Princeton, Stanford, Yale. My first choice is Stanford. But if I get rejected in Match, wouldn’t I also get rejected in RD, most likely? Since the process is the same, and my application is also the same…
Should I Match PY, then only apply to Stanford RD? Would this be a better choice? Or should I just QB Match all the schools. </p>
<p>Does this idea make sense?:
Match: Princeton, Yale, Stanford?
EA: MIT, CalTech
RD: forward all Match schools if not matched, plus harvard, columbia, UC Berkeley, UCLA, dartmouth, williams</p>
<p>Should I just Match MIT and Caltech instead of EA? Thanks!!</p>
<p>There are examples of persons who ranked Stanford in the National College Match process, were not matched by any college, but were admitted to Stanford in the regular round.</p>