<p>I know a student this year became a finalist, but was not matched with any of her 8 schools. She applied regular decision to the eight on her original list plus a few more QuestBridge partner schools. She was accepted at four of them--Oberlin, Swarthmore, Penn & Wesleyan and waitlisted at one more. Two of the acceptances provided her with generous financial aid packages with no loans (all grants) and a work-study job that will allow her to pay for textbooks and transportation. She is thrilled...and so am I.</p>
<p>so basically she didn’t get anything from being a qb finalist, right? she just got packages based on being low income?</p>
<p>She got in RD from QB, so the statement “she didn’t get anything from being a QB finalist” is misguided.</p>
<p>ok that confuses me… applying RD is applying RD right… qb is out of the picture at that point isn’t it? either you are matched or you are a “regular” applicant, aren’t you? it sounds like she did not receive a “full ride” by being a qb finalist, so the financial award package was based on the income, not on qb status… right???</p>
<p>No, the QB app can be used in lieu of the CommonApp for many of the schools, and even if you submit the CommonApp you can also submit the QB app as a supplement (that’s what I did). It will highlight your low-income status and circumstances, and give them three extra essays to read to find out about you as a person.</p>
<p>Furthermore, being a QB Finalist allows you to obtain fee waivers from all partner colleges, which is a HUGE advantage. I applied to 15 schools and only had to pay four application fees.</p>
<p>The financial aid package is not really affected by QB in the RD round, but since you are low-income and schools pledge to give great financial aid when becoming partner schools, you are almost guaranteed a good aid package. (Unless you are me and the school is Wesleyan, then you get next to nothing. >=[ )</p>
<p>@sMITten
</p>
<p>Yes and no. Once you are not matched, you are a “regular applicant,” so a full need package is not guaranteed and your aid will be calculated according to each school’s criteria. The QB advantage at that point is that you have “made the cut,” so you know you, as a QB finalist, have a strong application and competitive stats. My son added “QB Finalist” to his Common App as an award, so every non-QB school was aware of it as well. Also, he was invited to the College Prep conference at Yale, and that made a huge difference in how he approached the application process. </p>
<p>And being admitted, for those top schools that pledge to meet full need, is obviously THE goal.
He applied to 6 QB schools and got into 4, including 3 Ivies; he also was accepted to all 4 non-QB schools he tried for, including one Ivy. Was QB the critical difference? I guess we’ll never know for sure…he has great stats, but so do most of the applicants. Anything that sets your app apart from any other can be a deciding factor at a school that rejects 90%+ of its applicants. The QB process helped him put together a better application and saved us hundreds of dollars in app fees; that much I am sure of.</p>
<p>Right now he is deciding between two of the HYP schools he applied to, so he is thrilled with his outcome and looking forward to becoming a QB scholar! :)</p>
<p>Questbridge really isn’t that great of a program in my opinion.</p>
<p>Out of all the Questbridge Schools, only Scripps, Trinity, Washington & Lee, & Parsons, do not guarantee to meet the Full Demonstrated Need. For any of the other colleges, you would have gotten around the same package, Questbridge or not. </p>
<p>As for the application fee question, there are many options to avoid paying them, namely, NACAC fee-waiver (all schools will take it if you file early) (Unlimited), College Board Fee Waiver (4), in addition a simple letter explaining the Fiscal circumstances can help you avoid paying the fees. </p>
<p>I actually believe that Questbridge can often do more harm than good for many applicants. Questbridge itself has its own set of criteria and if its own criteria isn’t met, you don’t become a Finalist thus you face rejection early on in the application process, not very helpful in bolstering student’s self-esteem. In addition, students rejected in the first round have only a week to prepare and send out Early Decision/Early Action application.</p>
<p>In addition, even if a student does make it though as a Finalist, the matching process doesn’t work to a student’s favor. Students actually have a lower chance of being matched since if a student is matched with a school, the school then has to pay Questbridge a certain fee for finding said student. (In the realm of $5000 I read somewhere.) Thus, unless you’re a really amazing applicant and they want to bind you to their school, they’re simply not going to rank you. After that, you will be moved to the regular admissions pool and compete with the general admit pool, giving you no advantage at all.</p>
<p>However, that same student could have applied Early Decision/Action to many of the schools there, giving them a better chance to get in since many schools take a lot of Early students as well as have gotten around the same Financial Aid package, sans Questbridge.</p>
<p>I firmly believe that Questbridge aims well, but in my opinion, it fails to have a substantial positive impact upon the actual process for many applicants.</p>
<p>I don’t know about any of the other schools, but Trinity guarantees to meet the full, demonstrated financial need of all admitted students.</p>
<p>furthermore, xgunedx, I thoroughly disagree with you about Questbridge. I was a finalist not matched, and then got into a QB school (you might be able to guess which) through RD. QB is obviously great for those who get matched, but it’s also good for finalists in RD. They absolutely do have an advantage.</p>
<p>QB is about helping the most competitive schools in the nation identify the most achieving low-income students, and helping more of those students to be admitted into these schools. It has had a substantial positive impact on many thousands (tens of thousands?) of people, including me.</p>
<p>I attended the QB College Admissions Conference at Northwestern, and from what I understand QB is trying to make high achieving low income students realize that their economic situation doesn’t make a highly selective, “expensive” school unattainable. And yes, @xgunedx, as a high achieving, low income student one can get almost exactly the same financial package whether they are matched through QB, accepted EA, ED, or RD (at a school that promises to meet 100% of demonstrated need) but not all low income students are aware of this fact…which is what QB is trying to change.</p>