Princeton QuestBridge Scholars for 2008 (news item)

Colleges and Universities A-Z Princeton University
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<p>QuestBridge:</a> Students: Student Profiles</p>

<p>QuestBridge</a> National College Match Program</p>

<p>“The QuestBridge National College Match helps outstanding low-income high school seniors gain admission and full four-year scholarships to some of the nation's most selective colleges.</p>

<p>“If you are a student who has achieved academic excellence in the face of economic challenges, we encourage you to apply to the National College Match. You may be concerned about tuition costs, but QuestBridge's partner colleges offer generous financial aid packages that cover 100% of demonstrated financial need, making them very affordable for low-income students.</p>

<p>“Last year, QuestBridge's partner colleges offered admission and more than $90 million in financial aid to over 900 students who applied to the National College Match.</p>

<p>“The key benefits of the National College Match program include:</p>

<p>• Full four-year scholarships with no loans
• Top-tier colleges
• A focus on outstanding low-income students
• Two opportunities for college admission
• A free application
• A national alumni network</p>

<hr>

<p>The QuestBridge program has done an outstanding job of connecting high achieving high school seniors with top-tier four year colleges and universities. Not all schools participate. Within the Ivies, Columbia, Penn, Princeton and Yale are part of the program. All of the other participating schools are exceptional as well including Amherst, Bowdoin, CalTech, U. of Chicago, Claremont McKenna, Emory, Haverford, M.I.T., Northwestern, Notre Dame, Oberlin, the Parsons School of Design, Pomona, Rice Scripps, Stanford, Swarthmore, Trinity, Vassar, Wellesley, Wesleyan and Williams.</p>

<p>The program screens applicants, chooses a select group and then gives their information to the eight partner colleges each student identifies and ranks in his or her own priority order. The schools decide whether or not to offer admission and then the students are required to matriculate at the school that is most highly ranked on their personal list that has also admitted them. This binding matriculation does not apply for Princeton, Stanford, Yale, MIT or Notre Dame.</p>

<p>Princeton admitted and was the top choice of 31 QuestBridge Scholars this year. The next three largest groups are headed to Penn (25 matches), Yale (17 matches) and Wesleyan (16 matches). Fourteen each are headed to Chicago and Northwestern, twelve each to Stanford and Vassar, eleven to Columbia and the remainder to the other schools. </p>

<p>The students in the program who were selected but not admitted to any of their eight chosen schools still have a chance to seek admissions and a scholarship during regular decision at those schools.</p>

<p>While Princeton appears to be the most popular destination for the QuestBridge Scholars this year, this should not be understood to be some kind of ‘ranking’ of the participating institutions. It might simply be that Princeton admitted more of these students than did the other participating schools. Nevertheless, from reading their short biographical statements, I’m of the opinion that Princeton probably wishes it could enroll nearly all of the 260 students who were awarded scholarships this year. Here is a partial set of biographies for the thirty-one QuestBridge Scholars who are likely to be part of the Princeton Class of 2013. A hearty congratulations to each of them! They’re all outstanding and I think you’ll enjoy reading their stories. (A few of them may even be posting here at CC!)</p>

<p>Student</a> Profile: Irteza Binte-Farid
Student</a> Profile: Kara Brower
Student</a> Profile: William Chour
Student</a> Profile: Eric Donado
Student</a> Profile: Victoria Hoss
Student</a> Profile: Michael Jemison
Student</a> Profile: Randy Khalil
Student</a> Profile: Grace Kim
Student</a> Profile: Tierney Kuhn
Student</a> Profile: Ricardo Medina
Student</a> Profile: Erin Mills
Student</a> Profile: Francis Musella
Student</a> Profile: Sesheta Mwanza
Student</a> Profile: Yakov Pechersky
Student</a> Profile: Christopher Scherer
Student</a> Profile: Elizabeth Scullin
Student</a> Profile: Drew Simon
Student</a> Profile: John Steinbach
Student</a> Profile: Teguru Tembo
Student</a> Profile: Uyanga Tsedev
Student</a> Profile: Nathan Yohannes</p>

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<p>Hmmm.. it's interesting that these low-income students have had the opportunity to enjoy many luxuries, like studying and volunteering overseas... can someone explain this? Did they win scholarships for this?</p>

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<p>kk...like 1 maybe 2 URM's....i thought the purpose of questbridge was to extend their service to, yes, economically challenged individuals but also URM's...**<em>. and yes, i find it a BIT strange that these "economically challenged" individuals have enough money to conduct research and independent study and this, that and the third....that costs money. *shrugs shoulders</em></p>

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<p>my D is a finalist this year for Questbridge, but she did not get match and she is waiting for the RD result.. for everyone suspicious , i can talk only for my D, she went overseas one time ( won a scholarship)!</p>

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<p>Well, I was a QB finalist. Conducting research is free if you hook up with a willing faculty member and I'm doing an independent study with library books and MIT OCW. It doesn't have to cost a lot of money.</p>

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<p>These Questbridge Scholars (generally speaking) must be the most economically advantaged members of their respective applicant pools. I say this because my family lives off social assistance, and I have to work 30 hours a week to help pay the bills, rent, etc. Not to come off as piteous, but if they were as poor as I am and had to work 30 hours a week, they probably wouldn't have the time or the money to undertake such impressive extracurricular activities. But hey, there are some very resilient people out there.</p>

<p>And theguybehindyou, extracurricular activities always cost money in the sense that they always have opportunity costs (e.g., the opportunity cost of Paul's doing research over the summer is the $1100 he could of earned by working instead). Often these opportunity costs are too high for the poorest applicants to bear, so the wealthier applicants will always have an advantage. In that respect, the Questbridge application still discriminates against the poorest applicants. To make the program more equitable, they could create separate applicant pools based on income bracket (e.g., student-is-the-sole-bread-winner poor, welfare poor, working poor, etc.)</p>

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<p>That Drew Simon kid looks like a real ******bag.</p>

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<p>@jengaman: Haha...he really does. Lil' button up/Abercrombie-wearin', comb over havin' ni99a!</p>

<p>Edit: I bet his ***** is small too!</p>

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<p>^^Wow, you guys are being really harsh, and for seemingly no reason. Just because these students got accepted to a prestigious college such as Princeton does not mean that you should make unwarranted judgments about their character. In fact--being that they are QuestBridge Scholars--these are the students that were able to overcome tremendous personal difficulties to achieve their goals and for that they should be commended, not attacked.</p>

<p>Edit: Wow, I just actually took a look at that Drew Simon guy's profile...******bag for sure.</p>

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<p>How does QuestBridge define "low income"? Below $30,000 a year? Below $60,000 a year?</p>

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<p>National</a> College Match Program: 2007 College Match Recipient Profile</p>

<p>About 73% of Questbridge Scholars are the first in their family to attend college.</p>

<p>About 78% of them come from families with household incomes under $40,000.00 per year. About 33% of them come from households with family incomes under $20,000.00 per year. That’s below the official poverty line for a family of four and only slightly above it for a family of three.</p>

<p>Despite these challenges, 78% of them are in the top 5% of their classes. A third of them have SAT scores above 1400 on a 1600 scale.</p>

<p>The negative comments from some of the above posters (particularly those for whom this is their first post) are immature and poorly informed. You should be embarrassed. All of these students have overcome enormous challenges and having won a Questbridge match is a wonderful acknowledgement of that. I think that they should all be congratulated.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
All of these students have overcome enormous challenges and having won a Questbridge match is a wonderful acknowledgement of that. I think that they should all be congratulated.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Agreed. Props to Princeton for looking for students like those.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
Props to Princeton for looking for students like those.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Shame on those that don't participate and don't have need-blind admission but at the same time "buy" students, who often come from wealthy families, with generous merit-based scholarships.</p>

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<p>PtonGrad2000, I hope I am not one of those posters whom you call "immature and poorly informed." I made an inference explicitly derived from my personal experiences, and I allowed for the possibility that my inference might not be correct. There is no lack of maturity there. </p>

<p>And I certainly hope you do not believe that I am deprecating the achievements of these kids. What I said was a neutral observation with no emotional overtones. It was meant to highlight the fact that, although the Questbridge application is much more fair to low-income students than standard college applications, it does not fully counter the systemic bias that exists in college admissions.</p>

<p>Be more specific in who you are referring to when you use such severe language.</p>

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<p>Mustafah, I was not directing my comments to you. </p>

<p>As to your remarks, I both agree and disagree with you. The Questbridge program is directed at the very students you describe. In a larger sense, however, I would agree with you. It is certainly far more difficult for low income students, especially those who must work to support themselves and their families, to gain admission to top colleges. They have a more difficult time taking advantage of the institutional support mechanisms that are available to most other students. That was the reason for the creation of the Questbridge program. It cannot cure all ills but it can address some of them.</p>

<p>It sounds as though the challenges you face are severe. I wish you the very best in confronting them and am in awe of someone who can put in 30 hours of work each week and still continue his studies. You also write very well.</p>

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<p>Okay, my mistake. Sorry about the confusion.</p>

<p>I'm really glad that the Questbridge program exists, despite its flaws, and I have nothing but respect for the students who have won scholarships through it. I was considering completing the application myself, but then I decided that the Common App plus the supplements gave me enough freedom to describe myself and my situation without the stress of a binding commitment and an early deadline.</p>

<p>I really appreciate your support, by the way. And my writing...well, Wikipedia helped with that.</p>

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<p>I kind of agree with you, Mustafah78, but I think you need to redefine the advantage that the winners of quest bridge have. Many of them, including myself, have a cultural advantage over other lower income kids; that is, their families encourage them and for the most part they are surrounded by good people. Additionally, their parents are generally proactive in their educations. To be honest, I don’t questbridge is help for the lowest of the low socioculturally, which is a more decisive on a child’s prospects than socioeconomic status. That is why many immigrants, or children of immigrants will continue to be quest scholars for a long time. Most americans are way worse off socioculturally than immigrants.</p>