<p>canadianemigre Thank you so much for sharing this information and engaging in the dialog. I will pursue more info from Quest College. We are US citizens and we were looking at Colorado College. This would cost 14K less.</p>
<p>My daughter will be attending Quest in the fall of 2010. Could anyone, particularly the person who started this thread, give an update? thanks. p.s. I appreciate the concerns about Quest but my daughter has decided to take the risk because of the potentially exciting education.</p>
<p>Here is what we found out about Quest during our search for a university for our son to attend following graduation from high school earlier this year. For comparative purposes, we looked at six universities in BC and Alberta and a number of colleges. We did not consider UBC.</p>
<p>We were curious about Quest, so we attended a preview day. We were impressed by the school motto: “Question Everything” which to us represents the true ideal of a place of higher learning. We were also impressed by the campus and faculty. The students were suprisingly enthusiastic about Quest - my wife and I never felt that way during our years at SFU.</p>
<p>Impressed by our preview day we continued to look at other universities, but began asking friends and associates about what they had heard about Quest. One of our friendsteaches at a college. He she says that Quest is well-known in the BC academic community and he would go to Quest in an instant, but does not have his Phd, so he would not get hired.</p>
<p>Another parent was visiting trade fairs where various universities have booths and when she asked at the other booths about Quest the comments she received were quite dismissive. As she was leaving she noticed that the person staffing the Quest booth was her old English prof from another university so she went over to talk. He told her that he was going to retire but after he looked at Quest he quit the large public university he was at and went to Quest to finish his career.</p>
<p>I also met a person who applied to teach for a semester at Quest. He has his Phd and is currently a researcher at a very well-known cancer research institute - he said he was one of some 200 applicants for the positition and did not get the job, but will keep applying. He said that Quest is a highly desired place to teach among his associates. </p>
<p>We were also fortunate to meet several parents whose kids already attend Quest and without exception they were pleased and thought the money was more than worthwhile.</p>
<p>Over the past couple of months my son also met two students who attend Quest. They said that the really low student teacher ratio was a big help (in molecular bio - there were six students in the class). They also said that they had to work way harder than they did in high school. They also said that if you didn’t do your work the night before, you would be found out in the 3 hour session with your prof the next day. This helped to keep them on track.</p>
<p>Another friend who teaches now teaches high school in BC said she was one of 300 students in her first year math course at a BC university. When she went to see her prof for help he couldn’t speak English that well and after about five minutes he told her: “No help.” At Quest, there will be a maximum of 20 students in the first year math class and lots of prof time.</p>
<p>We also went back twice to additional preview days at Quest to see whether our first impressions would hold. We were still impressed buy different facutlry members and by the different groups of students - they went to Quest for a variety of reasons from dislike of big institutions, to sports, to friendships to a preference for taking one course at a time. Almost as many different reasons as there were students. In total, we listened to about 30 kids talk about Quest - too many to be handpicked by the Quest administration - and all students had good things to say.</p>
<p>As to cost, we have compared our total cost with parents who are sending their kids to SFU, UBC and UVIC - with the scholarship we are paying a few thousand more than these other parents, but the difference is not substantial.</p>
<p>In the end, my son narrowed his choice down to two institutions and chose Quest for academic reasons and the fact that it is only a couple of hours from home - close enough to home, but far away enough too.</p>
<p>Shortly after he enrolled, he recieved the summer reading list for the introductory course at Quest this fall. Jared Diamond’s Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed and Oedipus the King are the first books of study. These books are excellent introductions to university and no other parent that I asked in the past few weeks says their kid recieved an email from their university about summer reading.</p>
<p>My son has also had a senior student at Quest contact him and to offer any help he might need in finding his way at Quest. </p>
<p>The priority that Quest places on teaching is also illustrated in their website under employment which states in part: “While we offer moral, intellectual, and some financial support for the research interests of our faculty members, if you are interested primarily in a traditional academic career focused on research, please do not apply for this position.”</p>
<p>Obviously, Quest is driven by educating students rather than conducting research and that is what we want for an undergrad degree.</p>
<p>We share the concerns of other posters who note the risk of sending their kid to a relatively new institution, but sending our son to first year classes with 300 students seemed an equally high risk.</p>
<p>We will be pleased if Quest fulfills our expectations which are now quite high. We will measure Quest by a much higher standard than we would place on any other university in BC or Alberta. </p>
<p>We will know at the end of next year whether it fulfills its promise. In the meantime, we would not have supported our son’s choice if we didn’t agree with his analysis. </p>
<p>It may not be the right place for you or your child for any number of reasons, but it seems to be the best fit for our son and it more than meets our expectations of what we want in a university.</p>
<p>Quest is no doubt an experiment. It is a liberal arts college, which, in a Canadian system that increasingly focuses on research at the expense of undergraduate education, makes it an anomaly. Comparing Quest to other Canadian institutions is a case of apples and oranges. Quest will never do what those other places do – at least for research.
Teaching does require expertise. And the quality of academic credentials is a proxy for measuring expertise. An earlier poster worried that the staff isn’t qualified because too many of its faculty “were trained locally.” Without getting into a debate about the merits of “local” institutions, a look at faculty credentials suggests that Quest’s staff is recruited from an impressive array of institutions… Professors there (they call them “tutors”) have PhDs from, among others, CalTech, the University of Toronto, Yale, Berkeley, Davis, UBC, Vanderbilt, Chicago, UT-Austin, and Wisconsin-Madison. UBC is “local” – but the rest? Hardly.
If the quality of faculty credentials is an important yardstick, Quest certainly measures up.</p>
<p>Quest is so sketchy.</p>
<p>These posters with 1-3 posts are equally sketchy.</p>
<p>^yea, W T F is up with that lol</p>
<p>^ To be honest, I have no faith in their words at all</p>
<p>Rather than toss around vague and unsubstantiated pejoratives, it might be worth explaining what in your view makes an institution sketchy – and what makes an institution worthy of your approval.</p>
<p>A liberal arts college with a first-class faculty (solid PhDs, excellent teaching reputation and record, and manifest dedication to undergraduate education) is likely to be an excellent place to get a BA. An additional consideration: contact between faculty and staff. How much time do students actually get with faculty members? Rather than toss around words like “sketchy,” it’s worth looking at the time faculty spend with undergraduates. Generally, the more time the faculty have for undergraduates (not just in classroom contact hours, but in office hours, advising, and extracurricular activities), the better the education is likely to be.</p>
<p>Not everyone wants what a liberal arts college has to offer. Not every college education should be the same. Yet if a student is interested in a liberal arts education, then it’s useful to examine the factors that make a good liberal arts college: the quality of the faculty, the time and attention devoted to undergraduates, the intellectual climate at the school, and so on. On these criteria it’s hard to describe Quest as anything but excellent.</p>
<p>If someone wants a liberal arts education, then they should consider Mount A, or considering the cost of Quest, the dozens of excellent LACs in the US.</p>
<p>Is it accredited yet?</p>
<p>In response to MajorLazer’s suggestion: of course people should consider Mount Allison, as well as the “dozens of excellent LACs in the US.” The choice of a university or college should be as well informed as possible – and prospective students should evaluate the universities to which they apply as carefully as possible. Cost matters; so does the quality of the education students get; and so does the atmosphere at the university or college that the prospective student is examining. (Quest, incidentally, compares favorably on cost to many US liberal arts colleges.)</p>
<p>And, to noimagination’s query:
Yes, they are accredited. Here’s what their website ([Quest</a> University Canada - Facts at a Glance](<a href=“http://www.questu.ca/parents/facts_at_a_glance.php]Quest”>http://www.questu.ca/parents/facts_at_a_glance.php)) says:</p>
<p>Accreditation</p>
<p>Accredited by the Degree Quality Assessment Board (DQAB) under the British Columbia Ministry of Advanced Education, following a rigorous review of policies and programs
Fully accredited by the American Academy
of Liberal Education (AALE), a US Department of Education-approved agency
Authority to grant degrees from the Sea to Sky University (SSU) Act passed in 2002</p>
<p>Some of the earlier posts relating to Quest University came from persons who hold strong opinions on topics about which they know absolutely nothing, aka the voluntarily ignorant. I have been fortunate to have learned first hand a bit about higher education, the rewards of calculated risk, and Quest University Canada. </p>
<p>Throughout middle school and high school, our middle son questioned all the answers, and took academic self-expectations to near-record low levels. He wanted an adventure when he graduated high school, and claimed to want to try college in a place away from home. Quest’s proximity to Whistler caught his attention, and, to his credit, he recognized that he learned best in immersion. So we agreed to help him give Quest a one-semester try. </p>
<p>Many, including family members, quesitoned why we would spend $17,500 for a semester of private college for a kid who had spent most of his teenage years trying to prove that he cared less about school than anyone else he knew. We reasoned that we could spend half that for a semester at the big public university four blocks from our house, and be virtually guaranteed of a bad result, or we could invest it in a 50-50 shot at our son’s success in an less conventional education enviroment. </p>
<p>Almost overnight, the tutors (professors, almost all with PhDs), students and staff at Quest rechanneled all the energy that our son for years had dedicated to active underachievement. Within the first month at Quest, the kid who had voluntarily done exactly NO homework for 5 straight years suddenly could not wait to go to class, and then, to our delighted astonishment, share what he was learning with us.</p>
<p>The block program has proven to be a no-brainer in the quality-of-learning category. There is no opportunity to coast, and the reward of closure is always less than a month away. Our Quester is less stressed than I ever was in college or grad school, while getting a broad, deep and practical education. He works hard, and likes some classes better than others; but never once has he uttered the word “boring” about his Quest education. </p>
<p>Quest’s Ivy-league quality faculty, tight-knit community and pervasive sense of motivation amongst its students create a synergy that I have never sensed in the decades I’ve spent on and around college campuses. As added bonuses, Squamish is a perfect place for anyone living a physically active lifestyle, and a 40 minute drive from one of the most cosmopolitan cities in North America. When visiting our child at Quest, I have to pinch myself to realize that my child actually gets to LIVE in this spectacularly beautiful place. </p>
<p>The doomsday remarks about Quest’s financial situation are at best speculation. My wife and I each make our living sorting truth from lies. We have, as we say, well-tuned BS detectors. The administration at Quest has never failed to answer a quesiton we have posed, and been astoundingly candid when the University needed to make some financial adjustments. Of the updates we recieve from our kids’ colleges, the communications from Quest are candid, regular, humble and gracious, which have truly highlighted how flashy, arrogant an uninformative the propoganda is from the other college, an internationally renowned American LAC. I have recieved personal, specific e-mails from the President of Quest University concerning the future of Quest; my one personal e-mail from the President of our older son’s LAC essentially told me to quit asking quesitons about school finances, and then suggested I give money to the annual fund, in addition to the $50,000 tuition. In short, our parental experience at Quest has been exponentially superior to our experiences with either our older son’s LAC or our own alma maters. </p>
<p>At 70% of the cost of name-brand private American colleges, the Quest education is probably the best money we’ve invested in any of my kids. With our son now nearly half way through with college, we have already reached our goal in agreeing to let him take a shot at Quest: He has learned to love to learn.</p>
<p>Yes, Quest University is accredited Accredited by the Degree Quality Assessment Board (DQAB) under the British Columbia Ministry of Advanced Education, and the American Academy of Liberal Education (AALE), a US Department of Education-approved agency.</p>
<p>Quest is not for everyone, and certianly for the risk averse. Anyone with a “we can’t do it that way because we’ve never done it that way” attitude has no chance of ever changing the world. Don’t get me wrong…the world needs people who are risk averse, if for no other reason than to provide a static benchmark against which to measure progress of those who are not afraid to take a risk. </p>
<p>“Some people make things happen, some people watch things happen, and some people wake up and say “What happened?”” </p>
<p>Dr. Strangway, the founder of Quest, was the Director of Geophysics for NASA, where he designed lunar experiments for Apollo astronauts and also was involved in the examination of returned moon rocks that contributed to the further knowledge of the solar system. After that, he was the President of University of Toronto and UBC for a toatl of 17 years. Before turning the first shovel of dirt to build Quest, he secured in excess of $50 million in donations.</p>
<p>as for Strangway, I’d feel quite differently if he was still on board with Quest, but he’s not.</p>
<p>I have no skin in this game. </p>
<p>Being innovative, and taking a risk to do so, is indeed a great thing. But there is nothing remotely innovative about Quest-- except it’s trying to do the private liberal arts college thing, at the same US tuition cost, in a Canadian context. And it’s a huge risk: a financial one, a faculty one, a getting-the-classes-filled-with-college-capable-students one. </p>
<p>But you seem to be confusing an institution’s risk with your kid’s personal risk. </p>
<p>I don’t have a beef with what goes on IN Quest- I do not attend. I hae a beef with people promoting a school without caring about future students who may put themselves at risk. Why would you spend this kind of money without <em>the guarantee</em> that your kid will get to graduate and the school won’t close due to financial issues, or ‘financial adjustments’ or leadership snags? Why even go to a place where there is ‘speculation’ about its survival? Why would you not care about a school’s history of success, nor the quality of the student body your student will experience? Why would you risk the possibility that future employers or graduate school admissions would even give your kid credit for attending a school they haven’t heard of before?</p>
<p>Especially when for about the same price you could have gotten a wonderful, innovative liberal arts education without those risks! I love so many of those US colleges- especially the ones that do things really differently- Marlboro, Colorado College, St. Johns, or those listed in The Colleges That Change Lives. Your supposedly one bad experience with a ‘flashy’ US LAC tells you nothing about the other 700 of them. Or alternatively, you could have sent your kid to one of many wonderful small class, teaching intensive schools in Canada for $6k-- like Bishop’s or St. X-- and had enough left over for your kid to travel the world for another couple of years after that.</p>
<p>The remark about the cost of Quest being the same as top tier American LAC’s is simply wrong. I know, because I write checks to both Quest and Reed, one of those great schools listed in “Colleges That Change People’s Lives.” After it all shakes out, a year at Reed costs almost exactly 150% of the cost of a year at Quest.</p>
<p>Quite contrary to the remark about a “bad experience” you infer we’ve had with an American LAC, our son at Reed has had a great academic experience…but it does not match the engaement in his own education that our son at Quest is getting, and the difference in attitudes of the two administrations struck us during our first visit to Quest. Whereas Reed never misses an opportunity to tell us just how fortunate we are that our child is attending Reed, Quest seizes every opportunity to thank us for sharing our child. Reed’s approach seems rather arrogant, and Quest’s is engaging. So, yes, I much prefer Quest’s overall attitude.</p>
<p>Each of our sons is acquiring an education that fits their educational goals. Our Reedie may have the better academic pedigree and at the end of his undergraduate career; but our Quester will have honed his leadership skills by knowing he’ll have to carry his own load in Quest’s collaborative learning process. Life skills may not count for much to some, but it is our money, and we feel we are getting an excellent return on our investment at Quest. Moreover, in response to the questioning why we would take the huge chance in paying for a Quest education, I simply note that I am confident that the Quester will make a lot more money in his lifetime, if for no other reason than that Quest is fostering his ability to gain from calculated risk, while Reed is basically making a brainiac brainer. </p>
<p>Your persistent insinuations that there is something nefarious about Dr. Strangway’s absence from Quest have no traction, as far as I am aware. He is 76 years old, and retired form Quest about 3 years ago. Bless his heart for spending his first decade of retirement getting Quest started. If you have other information about why he has gone to the Okanogan, please share it. If you have no such information, then please cease this insidious line of attack on Quest University.</p>
<p>Like Starbright, I have spent time as a university professor. I left in large part because I like making things happen by taking calculated risk in the business world. I wanted to be able to afford to live up to the promise we made to each of our kids before they were born: They could attend the best school to which they gained admission. Six student-years into that process, we could not be happier with our kids college choices. Reed is definitley not for everyone, and neither is Quest. But criticizing either without knowing any specifics is not constructive.</p>
<p>BAJ, what’s the current enrollment at Quest?</p>
<p>I disagree BAJ that it’s not useful to criticize ‘without knowing any specifics’. It is very constructive because otherwise, all anyone would hear are a) marketing and b) those with vested interests who either work there or attend there and pay tuition. If you are indeed a parent, I absolutely believe it has been a great experience for your son and you like how you’ve been treated. That is useful information. From my outside perspective however, why have we read so much about Quest that raises questions of risk? And why should not future students be made aware of those? If indeed, the prior news coverage was a conspiracy, or wrong, or biased, then clarify how. Likewise, if the earlier financial and leadership/transition concerns are no longer valid, by all means argue that point. </p>
<p>I can not comment on in class discussions, the quality of teaching, how well they communicate with parents etc…but anyone who reads the news has a rightful reason to raise concerns about a school that simply can not guarantee to be around 5 years from now. How are the finances and what are these adjustments you refer to? Who is taking over after the current president leaves? Has the capacity been going up? </p>
<p>Reed is indeed expensive as so many are, but there are plenty of other private LACs in the same ballpark, that can be selective about the student body, are operating at full capacity, have a proven track record, and stable financials. Beloit- $6k more; Knox, about $5k more; Hillsdale $7 less…that took two minutes. </p>
<p>Here, just on a lark, I looked up the latest news about Quest, from two days ago. On the surface it seems trivial, compared to earlier issues, but what I take away from this are questions such as: Shouldn’t they have come up with a backup caterer before losing the one they had? Why do they need to change the contract? What are the implications of burning bridges with the local community when your business decision results in a lay off of 24? And why are only 150 students on the meal plan that should eventually have 600 on it? Is Quest still this far from operating at capacity? </p>
<p>[Quest</a> U., catering firm parting ways | Local News | Squamish Chief, Squamish, BC](<a href=“http://www.squamishchief.com/article/20110225/SQUAMISH0101/110229990/-1/squamish/quest-u-catering-firm-parting-ways]Quest”>http://www.squamishchief.com/article/20110225/SQUAMISH0101/110229990/-1/squamish/quest-u-catering-firm-parting-ways)</p>
<p>Starbright’s gloomy outlook for Quest is nothing new, although it is proving to be the baseless opinion of a committed detractor. I quote Starbright from a post she made (in response to a post about Quest from a young person whom Starbright accused of writing “like a shill”) on September 25, 2009:</p>
<p>“I’ve seen your posts elsewhere on here. Often you don’t offer anything about YOU, but instead make global generalizations about education options based on extremely limited personal experience (a sample size of one).”</p>
<p>----BAJDLLM’s observation: Please consider the source. I am a parent of a Quester, a very happy customer, and an unapologetic booster of Quest. I don’t try to hide behind feigned desire to “save” strangers, or to hide my biases. My wife and I both are from large, undereducated, blue collar families, and have studied, earned, saved and sacrificed enough that we are blessed to be able to send our kids anywhere they can gain admission, so I don’t need to justify to anyone why I pay for my son to attend Quest. I get nothing from defending Quest’s honor against unsubstantiated attacks, other than the satisfaction of doing my part to refute Starbright’s scandalous speculation, and to give families interested in Quest the view of someone who actually knows something about Quest. All evidence I have seen to justify Starbright’s fear of Quest indeed rests upon her “Global Generalizations …based on extremely limited personal experience.” I encourage anyone to ignore pejorative advice from someone who sells themselves as an expert on the subject, then engages in ad hominem attacks on Quest and its supporters, particularly after she claims that it is “constructive” to impugn Quest “without any knowledge of specifics,” and asserts that she has “no skin in the game.” (February 27, 2011 post). Although she artfully dodges the admission in her attacks on a Quest, Starbright has numerous other posts on collegeinsider.com in which she clearly and expansively indicated that she is a tenured faculty member at a public university in the Vancouver area. Having taught at the graduate level, I would assure any student of mine that criticism sans knowledge is never going to earn better than a C+, no matter how good the specious argument sounds. Starbright indeed has a vested interest, if not ”skin in the game:” The concept behind Quest is a threat to her established education and employment paradigm. Starbright might not like her competition; but that does not excuse her spreading anonymous unsubstantiated innuendo to undermine it. I understand Starbright’s point of view—and think it is important that readers about Quest understand that, even if Starbright ostensibly has no “skin in the game,” Quest’s most vocal critic on collegeinsider.com indeed has an axe to grind. </p>
<p>I further quote from that September 25, 2009 post by Starbright: </p>
<p>“I’ve honestly never seen a school that is as questionable as the one we are talking about. Seriously. I find it almost scary which is what makes me so passionate about it. I think that explains my strong reaction (which is not anger but apologize if it sounds that way in writing).” </p>
<p>----BAJDLLM’s observation: Every school has to start somewhere, as does every student. Both the school and the student were taking huge chances when a California start-up admitted an orphaned high school dropout for its founding class in 1891. The dropout graduated in four years with a geology degree, in Stanford University’s first graduating class. 33 years later, the dropout-turned-first-alumni, Herbert Hoover, was elected President of the United States. Some are comfortable with risk, some people are comfortable with comfort. Again, Quest is not for everybody; nor is complacency. </p>
<p>In that same 2009 post, Starbright wrote: "I feel this compulsion right now to ‘rescue’ you (or others) from a bad and costly decision. This is not a known school, even in the remotest [sic] sense. None of the schools that its [sic] associated with in terms of accreditation are recognized players in the graduate world. Its [sic] very expensive …. And there is no way of knowing if it will even exist two years from now. "</p>
<p>BAJDLLM’s Observation: Starbright apparently now has backed away from her name recognition argument, presumably because she knows how shallow it is to measure the quality of a person’s education solely upon the school’s hood ornament on the sheepskin. </p>
<p>Starbright asked yesterday “Why have we read so much about Quest that raises questions of risk? And why should not future students be made aware of those? If indeed, the prior news coverage was a conspiracy, or wrong, or biased, then clarify how. Likewise, if the earlier financial and leadership/transition concerns are no longer valid, by all means argue that point.“ </p>
<p>BAJDLLM’s observation: I trust that anyone who reads Starbright’s series of postings regarding Quest, old and new, quickly will recognize them for their shoot-from-the hip hostility to the entire concept of Quest. All I’ve seen in the press that constitutes what Starbright sees as “so much about Quest that raises question of risk” are last week’s tempest in a teapot over the cafeteria contract, and two October 2008 articles (Macelans and Vancouver Sun) that vaguely discussed Quest’s financial difficulties during its initial academic year, which coincided with the worst year in the North American economy in 70 years. Most institutions would love to have been the subject of only 3 negative articles in the past 2 ½ years, particularly in light of the difficulat economy, all the positive press Quest has received, and all the testimonials of happy parents and students. As for Starbright’s invitation to argue that unspecified financial problems from 2008 no longer exist: after you specifically identify the problems that you claim existed in 2008, then I’ll respond. I’ve covered the enrollment “issues” elsewhere in this post. Until Starbright cites one specific financial problem of Quest, other than the long-reversed 2008 CIBT Education Group co-management agreement, I shall waste no more time arguing against her vague allegations from yesteryear. If she actually raises specific issues besides her misguided (and, I might add, futile) negative innuendo I’ll do my best to find answers. </p>
<p>With respect to Starbright’s predictable slap shot about the very recent cafeteria issue at Quest, I note a few facts to fill in around her speculation: our Quester called us with a well-conceived plan the night he learned of the termination of cafeteria contract, and now tells us his refund is in his bank account; no student missed or will miss a meal due to the changeover; and, although any job loss can cause temporary personal setbacks, it appears that all of the employees in the Quest cafeteria will have the opportunity to continue at Quest under the new food service arrangement. If the cafeteria flap is the biggest issue Starbright can dig up to prove the riskiness of a Quest education, I invite her to speculate about it until the Garabaldi Glacier melts. </p>
<p>The most telling of all Starbright’s misdirected angst may be her insistence that students should shy away from Quest because it “simply cannot be guaranteed to be around 5 years from now.” I am not aware of any university, public or private, willing to “guarantee” such nanny state protection. Merely by raising a demand for a guaranteed future, a person pretty much self-selects out of placement (as student or faculty) in a university as innovative as Quest…or any job in the private sector.</p>
<p>The students and their parents are as excited as the faculty and administration for Quest’s first graduation this April. They all took a huge chance, and have built the foundation for a transformative post-secondary education experience for generations to come. I understand that no one is more excited for Quest’s first graduation than its founder and still-fervent supporter, Dr. David Strangway, whom I understand plans to attend. Although a few students who enrolled chose not to complete their university education at Quest, the 73 students on track to graduate indicates a 4-year raw attrition I calculate to be slightly below 10%, an excellent number for almost any university, whether public or private, old or new. </p>
<p>Our son hit a home run by enrolling in Quest. Half-way through, Quest already has accomplished our principal goal in sending him to college, by bringing out his inner love for learning. He has also learned the value in having the courage to push beyond his comfort zone and succeed wildly. If Quest were to fold on May 1, I would feel at worst that our son hit merely a ground-rule double. Because Quest has at least 30% more applications for its 2011 entering class than for any previous class, and is on financially sound footing by every indication other than Starbright’s unbridled speculation, Quest has a bright future. The only folding going on right now at Quest is of acceptance letters to excited applicants looking for excellence in higher education, and of diplomas for happy, well-educated, soon-to-be alumni.</p>