Official Questbridge Finalist Thread 2013-2014

<p>Good luck everyone :slight_smile:
Keep my fingers crossed for you and for me !!</p>

<p>I got interviewed by Princeton just yesterday. The interview went well, so iā€™m hoping that sheā€™ll turn in her feedback before the 12/2 deadline, but thatā€™s too much to hope, I guess.</p>

<p>Good luck to everyone tomorrow! (:</p>

<p>@akijunsu
Iā€™m sorry to say, but the Dec 2 date is for notification. The universities need to make their decisions in advance. I assume they have already made their decisions as of Saturday.</p>

<p>Good luck everyone!</p>

<p>gosh iā€™m so nervous for tomorrow</p>

<p>This was probably already asked, but when are notifications expected to come out tomorrow?</p>

<p>@jtr2014
I donā€™t think there is a specific time, but Iā€™m expecting to be notified around 3pm since that was when I was notified to being a finalist.</p>

<p>Iā€™m so nervous for tomorrow! Good luck to everyone!! :slight_smile: Did any of you apply to Upenn or Brown through match? :)</p>

<p>This wait is torturous. Good luck, everyone! :)</p>

<p>MIT, Princeton, Columbia, Caltech, Brown, UPenn, Tufts, and Northwestern is where I applied. I donā€™t plan on getting matched, Iā€™m planning to forward my application to MIT for early action, Iā€™ll be extremely surprised if I get matched to any of the schools I listed.</p>

<p>@Sigilkynd191
Donā€™t be so down on yourself. Be optimistic!!!</p>

<p>@Sigilkynd191
I feel ya. Iā€™m hoping for the best, but iā€™m really not expecting much tomorrow. Planning on forwarding my QB ranked schools to RD.</p>

<p>Lol I donā€™t think this will apply to me, butā€¦ Anyone know if QB alerts finalists who got into multiple schools of all the schools that theyā€™ve been accepted to, or just their highest ranked ā€œmatchedā€ school?</p>

<p>^The latter. Just the highest ranked school.</p>

<p>Urghh. Iā€™m also trying not to put too much hope in this but Iā€™ve still been a nervous wreck latelyā€¦ and as a result I canā€™t do anything productive. Canā€™t sleep & canā€™t use my time effectively so right now Iā€™m just catching up with Parks and Rec. Itā€™s been a while since Iā€™ve watched any T.V. haha. </p>

<p>Good luck to everyone!!</p>

<p>@akijunsu
QB only notifies you of your highest ranked school that accepts you, if you get into your number 1 then you wonā€™t know anything about the othersā€™ decisions. Iā€™m hoping to get matched too but I figure I should prepare myself emotionally for the inevitable since so few people get matched, Iā€™d rather think I wonā€™t get matched and then find out I did instead of expecting a match only to find out I didnā€™t.</p>

<p>@garridokiwi @Sigilkynd191 Wow, I didnā€™t know that. Thanks!</p>

<p>And I can totally relate. Iā€™ve been useless for this entire Thanksgiving break, shirking my hw for marathons of the Office haha. And now that itā€™s the night before, Iā€™m halfheartedly debating whether to stay up all night though the results probably wonā€™t be out even then.</p>

<p>I really, sincerely hope we all get in!</p>

<p>Agh, itā€™s so close!! Iā€™m hoping I get the email by ten oā€™clockā€¦ Northwestern said theyā€™d still take me early decision if I didnā€™t make it into the Match, and of course I have plenty of hope for regular decisionā€¦ But it would be so freaking awesome to be accepted into Standford by the end of the day. Iā€™d be like, whelp, I guess Iā€™m done with all that. :)</p>

<p>But for right now Iā€™m shivering and nauseous. Joining the club, I guess. </p>

<p>I havenā€™t posted before, so Iā€™m going to fill out the OPā€™s form real quick.</p>

<p>Decision: Finalist</p>

<p>College Match Schools:
Stanford
Northwestern
UChicago
Amherst
Pomona
Carleton</p>

<p>RD Schools:
The above, and
Central College of Pella, Iowa
Grinnell</p>

<p>Objective:[ul]
[<em>] SAT I (breakdown): 2160, CR 800, M 730, W 630
[</em>] ACT: 33 for December 2012, 35 for October 2013 (which probably didnā€™t make it in in time.)
[<em>] SAT II: WASNā€™T EVEN AWARE OF. (still a little upset about that.)
[</em>] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): By school reporting? 4.0 (By all standards of actual mathematics, it should be lower than that, though.)
[<em>] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 17 out of 35 or so. Tiny private school. And the rankings are by the actual GPA, which is lower than the ā€œUnweightedā€ one they put on my transcript. I guess itā€™s in my favor, though.
[</em>] AP (place score in parenthesis): Biology (3), AP English Literature and Composition (3)
[<em>] Senior Year Course Load: AP Stat, AP Calc BC, AP Eng Lang and Comp, Advanced Computer Programming, and not much else academically.
[</em>] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit Scholar Semi-Finalist
[ /list]
Subjective:[list]
[<em>] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): amateur jazz ensemble (1st Tenor Sax), Boy Scouts (ASPL), Quiz Bowl (Captain, 4A Arkansas State Champ)
[</em>] Job/Work Experience: Nothing paid.
[<em>] Volunteer/Community service: Sports managing for 5 years in Football and Basketball, many many volunteer hours over the summer for a scholarship.
[</em>] Summer Activities: Computer hobbyist, the above volunteer hours, musician and Boy Scout summer camps
[<em>] Essays: Surprisingly solid for me. Mostly family, like my grandfather and sister, and how they inspired me. Emphasis on being successful for other peopleā€™s sake.
[</em>] Teacher Recommendations: 1 solid, 1 not so solid. Good old Brother Joseph loves me, my old English teacherā€™s didnā€™t really look like it was written by an English teacherā€¦
[<em>] Counselor Rec: Good, with explanation of class rank and other characteristics of the school.[/ul]
Other[ul]
[</em>] State (if domestic applicant): Arkansas
[<em>] School Type: Private boarding
[</em>] Ethnicity: 25% Mexican, 50% German, 25% Scots (roughly, and identified as Hispanic Caucasian.)
[<em>] Gender: Male
[</em>] Income Bracket: Less than 20k before Social Security, less than 25k with.
[<em>] Assets: Nothing of actual value
[</em>] Property: None
[<em>] Extenuating Circumstances: Volunteer hours for scholarship to come to good private school. More private matters, as well.
[</em>] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): First generation of college graduates, at least. Though 3rd in this generation.
[/ul]
Reflection[ul] [<em>] Strengths: Ideals of the Questbridge program resonated strongly with me. [</em>] Weaknesses:Iā€™m not top caliber in anything, but I feel like itā€™s a solid application. [li] Why you think you were chosen/not chosen as a finalist: I was good by the numbers and told a compelling story. [/li][/ul]
General Comments:
Testing should have been done earlier, but I was unaware of the exact deadlines, and also never heard of the SAT II else I would have applied to CalTech and MITā€¦but oh wellā€¦ Any of these colleges would be a great start for me, and Iā€™m ready to apply myself to wherever I go. Iā€™m excited for this, and soo ready for this challenge. Onwards!</p>

<p>Oh, one last thing before I get the result:
New favorite book (for right now, anyway.): The Chaos of Stars, Kiersten White</p>

<p>Oh my gosh, Iā€™m so nervous. Has anyone heard back yet?? Iā€™m completely blanking on when I found out I was a finalist, but it was probably pretty late I think.</p>

<p>Iā€™m actually torn on whether I really even want the match or not - Iā€™ve only visited two of the schools Iā€™ve ranked (Carleton and Haverford) so Iā€™m realizing only now this couldā€™ve been a huge mistake. I guess this train of thought will be useful though: I win either way, really. </p>

<p>Good luck everyone!!</p>

<p>I havenā€™t gotten any emails from colleges yet and there isnā€™t anything updated on my questbridge account yet, I just keep refreshing the page. I might be doing that for the next couple hours.</p>