My child got email from QB that they got information from college board. First generation and low income and high sat score1580 . So he was recommended to apply QB. I wonder if we apply, when we know when he will be matched and if he wasn’t matched, can he applly regular decision or ED or he can’t apply schools which were in his list. I don’t know anything.
Wow! Congratulations to your kid on a great test score!
Paging @Mwfan1921 for guidance on QB. Best of luck!
@Babomom, go to their website at Questbridge.org and read everything you can about the college match. It’s been ages since I looked at it, but they used to have a flow chart with deadlines and notification dates that lays it all out. Match recipients are generally notified December 1st. My daughter was a QB match years ago, so I am familiar with the program. After you read the website, feel free to ask specific questions.
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Questbridge could be a good option, but it is a lot of work and has early deadlines. Here is the overview, but basically there are about 50 college partners, all of which meet full financial need.
If students are selected as finalists, they can choose and rank up to 15 of the college partners with the hope that one matches with them. If they match (notification usually around Dec 1), the match is binding (except for MIT) and the student is done with their college search. There are more details, but first take your time to learn the basics by reading the info at the links below, watching the videos, and then look at the FAQs. Overview
Their website is pretty thorough and gives a good sense of the types of students who should apply.
Note: most finalists have EFC 0. Estimate your EFC here
Here are the application requirements, with links to helpful tutorials and other resources: QuestBridge | National College Match: How To Apply
Visual chart of the process, with dates (not yet rolled over for the upcoming cycle): QuestBridge | National College Match: How It Works
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Should make list 15 schools?
I want 5 schools .
Thank you. Is it good to be recognized by QB or 1580 sat? You gave me congratulation. Because My daughter didn’t know email fro QB 2 2021 .
Apologies I was not clear at all! I was not multi-tasking well. I updated my previous post. 
I’m sorry, I don’t understand this comment. But I’m not very familiar with QB. Perhaps @CottonTales or @Mwfan1921 can help.
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If you make it to finalist the student can list up to 15 schools, so 5 would be ok.
But, some students might want to list 15, as fundamentally, QB lets a student chosen as a finalist to get their app in front of up to 15 schools in their ED/SCEA/REA rounds of admission.
I don’t understand this comment either. Is your student a HS junior?
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My son got email from Question Bridge today. QB email said that they got information from college board about my son. My daughter didn’t get this email from QB .so just i think my son got greater sat score than my daughter. My daughter got over 1500 sat in super score. Also she didn’t do well at psat. Just it is my opinion.
My (junior) son also got this email today. His SAT score wasn’t that high (1440) but his PSAT was pretty high (1470).
It is weird though because our income is definitely too high to qualify for QB. (We also have a son who is a senior this year and he doesn’t even qualify for aid at most colleges.) Maybe they just sent it to any student who had a high PSAT score.
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Maybe. Or first generation with high scores at psat or sat.
My daughter didn’t do well psat and she did take sat very late since covid. Thank you for your information.
There are advantages to QB beyond the match process. If you don’t match, AOs still recognize the prestige of being a finalist. And QB makes a lot of resources available to their cohort.
It’s definitely work to apply, but if you think you have a good shot, I would do it. It’s a great program.
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My S24 has been getting the emails too. He has a high SAT and PSAT but we live in a high SES zip code and we definitely do not qualify by income. The emails must be randomly sent out by scores. Not first gen.
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Exactly. Unmatched finalists are accepted to QB partner schools at a relatively high rate.
Unmatched finalists can sometimes roll their app into ED1 (just one) at certain schools (each school’s rules on Questbridge.org). It’s also easy to send the QB app to the rest of the partner schools for other rounds, e.g., a ED2 choice, as well as EA and RD.
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A couple of things I am unclear with and would like to understand.
When a finalist matches with a school, they presumably match with the top school they ranked.
So, the student ranked
- MIT
- Amherst
- U Chicago
- Middlebury
- Princeton
- Yale
- Colby
- Etc…
as examples.
The student got into Princeton. So that means the previous four schools said no, correct?
But if the student matched with none, then gets accepted ED, why accept the student ED but not in the matching round? I don’t get that part of it. The student still essentially gets all tuition and room and board paid if they get in ED as opposed to dying the matching round, correct?
Yes, you are correct. I’ve never understood why a school doesn’t match a student but then takes them ED either. Strange.
That is my understanding.
Sometimes the student who’s a finalist might not match to one of their ranked schools but get in another round simply because of numbers (the school is going to take only X QB matches for example), but can then pick up more QB unmatched finalists later. Unmatched finalists can also apply to partner schools they didn’t rank in the other rounds too.
Because these are all meet full need schools, I would expect similar FA packages whether a matched finalist or not…BUT I don’t know that happens for a fact at all schools. For example, matched finalists could have no student self help obligation, whereas the accepted unmatched finalist does.
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yes, I believe that’s the case since QB doesn’t have any info on student’s income. They are just trying to open opportunities to anyone who might qualify, starting with the test scores
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Example) Stanford or Yele has not ED2 . If wasn’t matched, we can only apply ed2 round. Right? When we apply QB ? When throgh apply QB , we don’t need comon app?
We can know whether we are matched or no by December 1. ED 1 application deadlines are nov 1 or around. Can’t we apply ED1 while we wait QB matching right?
I am confused. How do i apply ED1 pool .