<p>^ Surely the point of the autobiography is to focus on the difficulties you have grown up with, and how dealing with those difficulties has prepared you to succeed in college.</p>
<p>tokenadult, I might not agree with that. Being a QB applicant, there are other smaller essays that would be suited for a more “personal” event. </p>
<p>D’s 800 word essay mentioned in one sentence her “lack of money”, but other than that, I would not harp on it. The additional essay, you could mention something, but I see QB as wanting to see the positive of a student, not the “I came from a poor family with a crack mom”, or “we have no money”. Yes, QB does want to know something about your family background, but in your main essay, make it about YOU, how something shaped YOUR life. What happenend that you, are an overachiever against all odds? Did an event or a teacher inspire you? Tell them about you. They are not admitting your family.</p>
<p>Sorry to ramble. This is of course my own opinion.</p>
<p>Is it possible to get matched with only 2 SAT II’s (Math & Chem) if both are 800? Or should one take a third SAT II, such as US History?</p>
<p>Also, to add to GA2012MOM’s point, QB already knows most applicants have the “low-income”/family struggles/many-obstacles-to-overcome background, so I think making it a little different would be better.</p>
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<p>Your opinion is of course an informed opinion, and I thank you for pointing that out. And I should point out that I was actually replying to the PREVIOUS post to yours, to which you replied just before me. Your point is good to use each essay for what it is best suited for to make a complete picture of the applicant. My point was to respond to the idea of just writing a straight-up biography as if for a school assignment without relating it to the purpose of the QuestBridge program. </p>
<p>Good luck to this year’s applicants, and many thanks to the veterans of the process who are sharing information here.</p>
<p>GA2012MOM: Perfect advice- I couldn’t have said it better, and you have experience on your side. Relate events or experiences rather than your whole life story. Try to give them pictures and a feel for who you are rather than trying to squeeze every detail about yourself in (just not possible!). A great, great book if you get stuck is On Writing the College Application Essay by Harry Bauld. Good luck!</p>
<p>I have a question! (sorry to depart from the ongoing discussion)</p>
<p>When calculating unweighted GPA, should I count college classes on the 5.0 scale as well as honors/AP classes?
My school does not do this for me so I have to do it.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>@muffinish: I wish i knew XD i emailed QB with a GPA question and the gist of their response was pretty much ask your councelor or a teacher to help you calculate your weighted and unweighted GPAs T_T LAMEEE</p>
<p>Ugh i have another question. </p>
<p>Can i do the match process and apply to other nonpartner schools using CommonApp Early Action (not restrictive)?</p>
<p>^^^^^^^^^</p>
<p>If you choose to rank one or more colleges (regardless of whether each college is binding or non-binding) for the College Match, you may not apply to other colleges through Early Decision or Early Action. Since the College Match is a binding early admission program, applying to both QuestBridge and another program early would violate the agreement with the other program. If you submit a QuestBridge application but do not become a finalist (notification of finalist status will occur on October 23, 2009), then you are released to apply to any college Early Decision or Early Action. </p>
<p>This is from the QB website.</p>
<p>Thanks MOM!</p>
<p>And if you get matched to a nonbinding school through QB can you still do the RD round?</p>
<p>Yes, that is correct.</p>
<p>W00tt thanks again!</p>
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<p>But for MIT and Caltech on their individual college information on the QB website, it also says that you may apply Early Action to these two colleges, even if you are a Finalist? So I could apply to Questbridge, and if I were a Finalist, I could forward my app to MIT/Caltech for EA. I’m not sure if this is true though…can anyone confirm?</p>
<p>^^^^^^^</p>
<p>Yes you may, but that is IF you are not matched. While going through the match process, you may not apply EA/ED to any schools. If you are not matched on December 1st to any school, you may then apply EA by the NEXT day, December 2nd for Caltech, and to MIT, whatever their normal EA deadline is. But if you are a finalist, you may not submit ANY other applications for EA/ED until after match notification on 12/1, whether to a QB partner school or ANY other school.</p>
<p>^But the EA deadline is BEFORE December 1st. I’m guessing that I forward the QB app on December 2nd, and am simply put into the EA applicant pool.</p>
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<p>If you are applying to Caltech during the Match round, they will already have your app. You will just send the email as stated above.</p>
<p>Oh sweet, I just re-read that part on the website. Thanks!</p>
<p>Could anyone help me with my biographical essay? I’m worried that the topic is too dark and that I might come off as mentally unstable/looking for the sympathy vote. Due to the topic, I’m not comfortable sharing it with my peers or my teachers.</p>
<p>I’m Matching MIT and planning to do EA if not Matched but am a Finalist. However, I didn’t know that the MIT application is not necessary, so I started filling some of it out. Would this be okay? </p>
<p>Also, is there any significant advantage to applying to MIT EA if not Matched? Would the 3 chances that I get (QB, EA, Regular Decision- most likely, since 80% of EA applicants get deferred) necessarily help in admissions? Thanks!</p>