<p>I met with the principal of my son's HS, and I brought up Questbridge as a potentially useful program for his students. He said he had never heard of it. I let that pass; he was in his first month as principal, having just come up from a middle school administrative job. There are lots of reasons why he might not have been up to speed on it yet.</p>
<p>I met with my son's GC, and mentioned Questbridge. He had never heard of it. That I found to be more surprising/disappointing than the principal; he has been a GC for some years, and serves a public school with plenty of kids in the income level that would qualify.</p>
<p>What think ye?--should Questbridge be common knowledge among GCs by now?</p>
<p>Two years ago (my D is now a sophomore in college) we received a letter from Questbridge about the program. I read it and thought it was too good to be true. I asked my school’s guidance office; they had never heard of it and said it was probably a scam.</p>
<p>I did some more research on my own and D applied through Questbridge. She didn’t get matched, but it may have played into her regular admission later down the road.</p>
<p>Anyway, S is now a junior in hs. It will be interesting to see if I hear anything this time around. I told the guidance office about the program and forwarded them emails.</p>
<p>Our hs is an urban public and has a high percentage of free and reduced lunch students. Not all of the students have the scores/grades/interest for the schools affiliated with Questbridge, but some (like my daughter) will.</p>
<p>I would not have been so surprised 2-3 years ago, but it seems like Questbridge has proven up and become a credible player in the admissions world. But maybe I am an admissions nerd/CC junkie and should expect the GC to know about it. They have so much to do, just trying to get kids graduated, off drugs, and out of jail.</p>
<p>The timing of Questbridge doesn’t fit well with the high school schedule, since students have to do most of their application work over the summer. I suspect that’s why the program is not on the radar of most guidance counselors. </p>
<p>It’s too bad, since it’s a fantastic program. Even if students aren’t matched, there are practical advantages to having the application done early and being able to submit it to other QB partner colleges.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s terribly well-known because I think it’s an uncommon combination – a stellar student from a low SES background.</p>
<p>Ds was a finalist but not matched. His school had one counselor who was familiar with the program, but he wasn’t ds’s GC. The college counselor got up to speed quickly and was wonderful. At the time, the school was making the conversion to Naviance for LORs, so I think ds’s GC liked having him test the system so early to work out the kinks before all the ED/EA/RD apps came due.</p>
<p>For the last 3 years I have emailed all kinds of links for QB to my AP in charge of pupil personnel. He is against it because only private schools participate. Any suggestions for me? Our school in 96% minority, 75% on free/reduced lunch.</p>
<p>No, none of the guidance counselors at my high school that I’ve talked to knew about Questbridge. I’ve forwarded an email about the program to my high school’s head guidance counselor person recently, and he returned the email saying that he would “investigate” what it is, or something to that extent.</p>
<p>I feel that it is not very well known in the schools where it should be.</p>
<p>Does the AP understand that each of these schools promises to meet the full need of any student they accept, with no loans? It’s an amazing deal, and it’s likely to be better than the public universities, since they can’t afford to offer no-loan aid packages.</p>
I think the GC isn’t so familiar with it because she’s too used to recommending public schools to her students. So, not only is she unfamiliar with QB (and the possibility of getting a free ride), she’s also unfamiliar with private colleges. Wish I knew how to break that cycle. Suggestions anyone?</p>
<p>It is also possible that the HS is located in a wealthy neighborhood and very few if any of the students will qualify. So if there is no demand, GC will not look up for it. Very few GC will have the time to look for scholarships for students anyway, they are too busy just to recommend schools and sending transcripts or other chores.</p>
<p>I had the pleasure to speak to a Questbridge mom in my DD’s convocation at UChicago in September. She had two of her daughter got in Questbridge and was bragging to everyone sit at the table. We were just smile and nod, smile and nod… That is how I realize that programe real exist.</p>
<p>The program is very selective, so it’s understandable that the mom was very proud of her kids’ acceptance. In the first filter, I think about 50% of the students move into the match process. Overall, only about 10% (I think) of the original set are actually accepted during the match process. So it’s a long shot, but great when it works out.</p>
<p>Their primary focus in on course selection and handling “problems”…whether these be grading conflicts, discipline or pushing 504s (and that is not a slam on 504s)- -but sadly my experience is that GCs are clueless on summer programs, scholarships, college admissions issues, and anything remotely important to the process. </p>
<p>I forwarded so much info from CC to D’s GC that she should have known/read/used by the time S and his friends went through-- still pretty clueless.</p>
<p>Nice person - overworked. Has 300-400 students in any given year-- she’s not their college counselor. She’s their “guidance” counselor-- where guidance is “sign off on school forms” …that’s it.</p>
<p>Fast forward – the high school hired a “college liason” last year – a child herself-- what a dope. She knew absolutely nothing-- she didn’t even know what the Common Ap was – I kid you not!
My S was applying Early Action to Carnegie in summer of 2009 with a September 1 application due date. She was the only person at the school in mid August when S was ready to mail an official transcript (during the school year, her “admin asst” has done a fabulous job for the past decade sending some 1800+ transcripts out for the seniors who apply to 3-20 schools each). When I asked if she could handle the common ap form in color-- she said what is that? She was a deer in the headlights!</p>
<p>So our top notch high school (94% attend 4 year colleges) largely relies on about a dozen private college consultants serving 3 schools within a 30 mile radius-- thankfully, this is part of how I earn my living -with a dozen carefully selected students each admission cycle. This year, I thought I’d offer to do pro bono work for the low income crowd-- sent the GC a note to that effect. She forwarded to the dizzy “college liason” (now in her second year on the job)- and it died there. So who knows where these kids get their assistance.</p>
<p>So-- the fact that a GC didn’t know about Questbridge - puhh, doesn’t even shake an eyelash here. But very sad!</p>
<p>Truthfully, I think once he saw that the schools were private he didn’t even pass the info to GCs. I will get written up if I go over his head to talk to them.</p>