FINALIST!
My daughter is a finalist! I was so sure she wouldn’t be accepted since she didn’t make CPS. I’m so proud of her! It’s especially hard as a homeschooler to fit into their boxes.
My son is a Finalist from Florida!!! Good Luck!!!
For non-finalist, will you still be applying ED to your top schools?
Should we still apply through QuestBridge as non-finalists? Or should we use Common app instead?
My daughter is a Finalist…Good Luck!!!
I think I’m going to use the common app, just keeping my fingers crossed for Northwestern
I’m a finalist!!! Its so surreal
I’m a finalist!!!
Schools Ranked: WashU, Stanford, Rice, UPenn, Vanderbilt, Yale, Dartmouth, Brown, Duke, UChicago, Northwestern, Emory
Objective:
- SAT I (Comp, Essay, CR, M, CW): 1380/680/700. Had to take this one at school.
- ACT (Comp, Essay, Eng, Math, Read, Sci): Superscore is 34 (35/32/35/34, 9) Highest sitting is 33 (35/31/35/31)
- SAT II (Type, Score): None
- Weighted GPA (out of ??): 5.600/5.00
- Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): Not available
- Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/410
- AP (place score in parenthesis): School only offers two. I didn't take one and I'm in the other (Calculus AP) right now.
- IB (place score in parenthesis): Not offered at my school.
- Senior Year Course Load: All honors classes, some are dual credit - English, Chemistry, AP Calculus, Economics, and second year Spanish. Next semester I am taking a dual credit course titled "Global Issues" in place of Economics.
- Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National recognition in speech and debate
Subjective:
- Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Speech 9-12 (Secretary, 12), Debate 11-12 (Team Captain, 12), Robotics (Team Captain, 12, first year team was made), Math Team 12, National Honor Society (Treasurer, 11-12), Student Council (Treasurer 11-12)
- Job/Work Experience: I grade papers for my teacher ~5 hrs/week and tutor a 4th grader in math 2 hrs/week
- Volunteer/Community service: I do a lot of community service through National Honor Society and Student Council.
- Summer Activities: I participate in community service and went to speech/debate camp for two weeks before my junior year.
- Essays: My biographical essay was 10/10. It was raw, emotional, and so personal I probably wouldn't let most people read it. It highlighted my struggles of being sheltered, controlled, and neglected simultaneously. My 500 word essay talked about my community and the plight we've faced, and I introduced a solution to our economic plight that was sound: 8/10, personally my least favorite. My two short answers were about Alexander Hamilton and how we shared similar childhoods, and my greatest achievement about cooking a meal for the first time by myself.
- Teacher Recommendations: My speech/debate coach was highly invested in writing me a fantastic recommendation and watched a few of the QuestCasts. She knows my life story and cares so much about me she offered to open her home to me: 10/10. The other one was my junior math teacher/National Honor Society sponsor, but I'd probably put his at 8/10.
- Counselor Rec: My counselor and I don't really know each other well, but I doubt he'd have something negative to say. I can't estimate that. All my recommendation rights were waived.
Other
- State (if domestic applicant): Illinois
- School Type: Public
- Ethnicity: White
- Gender: Female
- Income Bracket: $0
- Assets: $0
- Property: $0
- Extenuating Circumstances: N/A
- Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): First generation college student, ward of the state (in foster care)
Why you think you were finalist and general comments: I put a lot of heart and soul in my essays. They went through many revisions. I hope that I hear some good news on December 3rd!
finalist!! congrats to everyone else who was chosen as a finalist and to everyone who wasn’t selected, it isn’t the end!! you’ll crush your ed/ea/rd apps!
Finalist! For some reason I was not very nervous when I checked but happy regardless. Good luck to everyone else, it is going to be a grind trying to finish all these requirements for early app.
Finalist! Very surprised, honestly. I checked my status totally expecting a rejection. Good luck to everyone else!
@Solarose
No offense, but how is your income bracket, zero?
Decision: Finalist
Schools Ranked: Wellesley, Yale, Princeton, Stanford (in that order)
Objective:
- SAT I (Comp, Essay, CR, M, CW): 1460, 24 (essay), 710/750
- ACT (Comp, Essay, Eng, Math, Read, Sci): n/a
- SAT II (Type, Score): Math II: 680, Literature: 650, US History: 620
- Weighted GPA (out of 100): 96.051
- Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): n/a
- Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 10%
- AP (place score in parenthesis): Chemistry (3) Seminar (4) World History (5) Language (5) Euro History (5) US History (5)
- IB (place score in parenthesis): n/a
- Senior Year Course Load: AP Calc BC, AP Bio, AP Comp Gov, AP US Gov, AP Research, Health, Photoshop, Orchestra
- Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Principal's Honor Roll (95% GPA or above every quarter) grades 9-12, National Honor Society, National Art Honor Society, Violin 1 Section Leader, Social Studies Achievement Award, AP Scholar, AP Scholar with Distinction
Subjective:
list
- Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): GSA, school musical’s pit orchestra for Pippin, March for Our Lives organizer, had a lead role like once in the fall drama in 9th grade lmao, art club, family responsibilities.
- Job/Work Experience: 30+ hours a week as a waitress, babysitter over the summer, violin teacher’s assistant at my school’s summer art camp, currently a barista/dessert preparer at an Italian restaurant ~25 hours a week.
- Volunteer/Community service: National Art Honor Society which included charity work for various groups
- Summer Activities: Work, friends, work.
- Essays: My biographical essay was like an 8/10. It was well-written, humorous, and accurately depicted the financial and familial circumstances of my life and how I was able to grow despite them. Second essay was like a 10/10. I picked the prompt ab a time that changed my perspective. It was a composition from the beginning of 11th grade based off of a chapter in Black Boy (the part where he worked as a server in a cafe). I wrote about being a waitress in a Mexican restaurant and the bond that my coworkers and I built with each other despite our immense cultural differences (Chinese, Salvadorian, Mexican, Italian, etc etc) and how we all had a common goal of nurturing our love for life and the people we cared ab by working hard to make money. It wasn’t written for QuestBridge but it met the requirements of the prompt and it’s a really personal paper to me that I think shows my best work.
- Teacher Recommendations: I honestly don’t know. Waived my rights. My first rec was from my pre-Calc teacher who is currently my AP Calc teacher who is genuinely the sweetest, coolest teacher one could have. My second rec was from my Euro teacher who was pretty cool. I did well in both of their classes but since I’m not a psychic they really could have written anything.
- Counselor Rec: 10/10. My guidance counselor is incredible. She would go to the moon and back for me. I waived my rights but she called me down to her office like 3 times a week for 3 weeks to ask me more questions about my life, goals, and classes cause she said she wanted to “do me justice”. I love her to death and I trust she wrote something really great.
Other
- State (if domestic applicant): New York
- School Type: Public, about 2000 people
- Ethnicity: Asian
- Gender: Female
- Income Bracket: ~45,000
- Assets: $0
- Property: $233,000 left on mortgage
- Extenuating Circumstances: My dad is an alcoholic who has put my fam into immense debt from drinking/hospital bills/DUIs/defaulted loans. ~50k debt.
- Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): First generation immigrant/college, engaged in protests, politically active, father is a 9/11 survivor
Why you think you were matched/not matched and general comments:
Who can say? Reading past finalists/matches, it doesn’t seem like there is a specific “type” of person that QuestBridge selects. It really feels random at times. I think my writing and willingness to work really hard to help my parents get out of extenuating circumstances has helped me in being selected.
@emorynavy Solarose is a ward of the state.
Finalist!! good luck to everyone who applied!
Schools Ranked: Yale, Duke, UChicago, Columbia, Brown, Dartmouth, UPenn, Emory
Objective:
SAT I (Comp, Essay, CR, M, CW): 1480
ACT (Comp, Essay, Eng, Math, Read, Sci): 26, retaking in December
SAT II (Type, Score): 710 Math 2, 640 USH
Weighted GPA (out of ??): 5.1/5
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.97
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 2/500+
AP (place score in parenthesis): AP Gov, AP Calc AB, AP CSP (5s) and AP HUG, APES, AP Lang, AP Seminar, AP Psych (4s)
IB (place score in parenthesis): n/a
Senior Year Course Load: AP Micro, AP Research, IB Spanish, AP Calc BC
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Nothing much besides National Spanish Exam and AP Awards like National AP Scholar
Subjective:
Extracurriculars : National Honor Society (Treasurer) Student Council (Junior VP, Senior/ Student Body Secretary), HOSA (Historian), National Spanish Honor Society (Officer then Co-President)
Job/Work Experience: Small family business ~30 hours weekly
Volunteer/Community service: A little under 100 hours, mainly through clubs
Summer Activities: n/a
Essays: 8/10 Overall, I really liked one of my short answers.
Teacher Recommendations: Hard to say, one of my teachers forgot that she wrote me a recommendation which seems a little alarming. However, I really like both of the teachers I chose so I’d say 7/10.
Counselor Rec: I don’t have a relationship with my counselor whatsoever since we only really see them once or twice a year. It also doesn’t help that we get assigned a new one each year. However, she seemed nice so I’m sure she wrote a nice recommendation, just not very personal or specific so 5/10?
I waived my rights to all recommendations.
State (if domestic applicant): SC
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Female
Income Bracket:~50,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): First generation college student
Still can’t believe I’m a finalist, but I made it!!!
Schools Ranked: MIT, Stanford, Duke, CalTech
Objective:
- SAT I (Comp, Essay, CR, M, CW): 1480, 22, 700/780
- ACT (Comp, Essay, Eng, Math, Read, Sci): 35, 7, 33, 35, 36, 35
- SAT II (Type, Score): Math 2, 780; Math 1, 770; Physics, 690 (my new physics score comes out tomorrow)
- Weighted GPA (out of ??): 4.50 out of 5.00
- Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.98 (Self-calculated)
- Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 2/359
- AP (place score in parenthesis): AP World(4), APUSH (5), AP Calc BC (2, 2 on AB subscore also), AP Physics C Mechanics (4), AP Physics C E&M (5), and AP Eng Lang & Comp (4)
- IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
- Senior Year Course Load: Multivariable Calculus/Linear Algebra (each class is a semester), Engineering Physics 3 & 4 (basically modern physics with some engineering aspects), Environmental Science and Honors Research, Mentorship(my mentor is from NASA so I like intern at NASA), AP Lit 12, AP US Gov, and AP Psych Online
- Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): AP Scholar with Distinction, and a bunch of honor societies
Subjective:
- Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Scholastic/Quiz Bowl (Co-Captain, 11-12), Rho Kappa History Honor Society (VP, 12), CNU Math Competition 11-12, Tutor my brothers every week 4 hours/week, Mu Alpha Theta Math Honor Society, National Honor Society, and Science Bowl
- Job/Work Experience: I worked for my school over the summer at a summer camp as a counselor
- Volunteer/Community service: Serve a lot of community service through Rho Kappa and NHS
- Summer Activities: Worked for a STEM Summer Camp, visited Harvard and MIT
- Essays: My biographical one was like a 8/10. I thought it was good in the beginning but then I submitted it and started reading others essays and realized just how much I fell short. My topical one really told the story of how a STEM school in 11th and 12th grade changed my views about effort and how much hard work could pay off. I talked about wanting to meet Hitler for the character one (probably a really weird response) and the proudest achievement was realizing that I could be proud of my exterior appearance after getting past my childhood bullies.
- Teacher Recommendations: My Scholastic Bowl coach was also my APUSH teacher and I was one of the only two students to score a 5 on the exam and he’s known me for a while so I’d rank his a 9/10. My physics teacher from junior year was the best teacher I’ve ever had and he writes a lot of great recommendations every year and I was one of the most hard working students in his class because that class was the hardest I have ever taken in my life, so that would be a 10/10.
- Counselor Rec: I don’t really know my counselor that well, but she does know me by name. There’s not really anything she can say negatively about me imo but the rec was probably kinda generic so I’d say a 6/10.
Other
- State (if domestic applicant): Virginia
- School Type: Public, I also go to a Governor’s School that is STEM focused and an extremely rigorous program.
- Ethnicity: Asian
- Gender: Male
- Income Bracket: ~$25,000
- Assets: $0
- Property: $120,000 left on mortgage
- Extenuating Circumstances: My brother had to get a rabies shot because he contracted rabies from a dog bite and the medical bill came out to be like $25,000
- Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): First Generation College
Why you think you were finalist and general comments: I really think that my teacher recommendations were the things that pulled me through since my essays were not the best that they could have been. I guess my scores were pretty high tho I don’t really know if that matters. I pretty much plan on compensating with the short essays that each school needs. For all those were didn’t make Finalist, DON’T GIVE UP!!! There are still so many other opportunities and you guys will definitely make it to a place that feels like home. You all are extremely qualified to make it in life! Good luck!!! 
BEFORE YOU READ THIS, SOME SECTIONS IN MY ANSWERS MIGHT SEEM WEIRD AND ITS BECAUSE I WENT TO THREE DIFFERENT HIGH SCHOOLS FROM 9TH-12TH
I’M A FINALIST! I’m so happy for all the other finalists too! I’m currently praying that I get matched to one of my 8 colleges LOL
Schools Ranked: Stanford, UPenn, Yale, Columbia, Brown, Dartmouth, Duke, & UChicago (one of my regrets is not adding the full 12 colleges because I realized now you can remove some if you want to or change the order, so I recommend for future applicants to rank as many as you can!)
Objective:
- SAT I (Comp, Essay, CR, M, CW): Comp - 1460; Essay - 16; ERW - 710; Math - 750 (I'm not very good at studying by myself, so having a group session for SAT tutoring really helped me achieve my score!)
- ACT (Comp, Essay, Eng, Math, Read, Sci): Comp - 29; Eng - 29; Math - 25 (LOL); - Read - 29; Science - 24
- SAT II (Type, Score): Spanish - 700; Literature - 580 (LOL)
- Weighted GPA (out of ??): 5.000 out of nobody in Miami Dade knows
- Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.725 (LOL) (I thought my unweighted GPA was too low especially since the average Questbridge GPA is 3.90 but apparently not so don't get discouraged by a specific section in your application!!!)
- Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 15 / 626 (Top 3%)
- AP (place score in parenthesis): Macroeconomics (1.... LOL); World History (2... LOL); English Literature (3); Psychology (5); Government (5)
- IB (place score in parenthesis): Not offered at my school.
- Senior Year Course Load: AP Calculus AB, AP Spanish Language, AP English Language, AP U.S. History, Physics Honors, Leadership Techniques (aka Office Aid), Volleyball 1 & 2 (I really like volleyball LOL), and Intro to Philosophy (dual enrollment at a college)
- Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Principal Honor Rolls (straight A's), Questbridge Finalist (:3), AP Scholar, Future Business Leaders of America - 3rd Place Hospitality Management, Key Club Pride Report Submission Award
Subjective:
- Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Dual Enrollment student with over 61 college credits (this was definitely a key strength in my application); Key Club Secretary - 9th Grade, Key Club President - 10th Grade, Key Club Member - 11th and 12th Grade, Future Business Leaders of America - 11th Grade, Counselor at a summer camp for little kids, Gay-Straight Alliance (where my LGBTQ+ Questbridge finalists at???), National Honor Society Member - 9th-11th Grade, Cross Country & Track and Field - 9th and 10th Grade
- Job/Work Experience: I’ve had two jobs. One was as a cashier in a fast food restaurant and the other was as a swimming instructor for many kids (especially kids with disabilities). I took on these jobs to help out my mom financially.
- Volunteer/Community service: I have over 1,000 community service hours (maybe I snapped…)
- Summer Activities: Volunteer work at the summer camp I mentioned and one of my jobs was during the summer.
- Essays: First off, I want to say that all the writing section along with my teacher recommendations were the best part of my application FOR SURE. I’m going to go in order as it shows in my Questbridge application. I absolutely LOVED my short answers part 1. I want to say they’re a 10/10. Make sure to SHOW not tell! Don’t be afraid to make it personal and a little humorous, they love that! And to my fellow LGBTQ+ future applicants, don’t be afraid to mention how you identify within the community because look where it got me!! My short answers part 2 were super cute and I had SO MUCH FUN doing them and learning more about myself in the process. I give it an 8/10 because I realized now some grammatical errors and I thought I could’ve done them better. MAKE SURE TO PROOF READ ALLLLLLLL OF YOUR APPLICATION PLEASE! That brings me to my first essay, the biographical essay. Words can’t describe how proud I am of my essay, and how many times I asked people to proof read it LOL. At least like 20 people have read my essay and it was so amazing to hear all of their different opinions because think about it… you are not gonna know the person that reads your application and you have to make sure they understand what you’re trying to convey. A good tip is to read it out loud to yourself to see if it makes sense and to ask your english teachers to proof read. 10/10. For essay 2 I chose the community prompt and I had the most difficulty with this one but it still came out great. 8/10.
- Teacher Recommendations: SO IMPORTANT! MAKE SURE TO WAIVE YOUR RIGHTS! I asked two of my dual enrollment teachers at Miami Dade College for a letter. I knew both of them very well and they love and care for me very much and I don’t think some of you understand how difficult it is to get college teachers to actually like you more than a student LOL. One taught Humanities and the other taught Speech Communications. They probably wrote me the best letters EVER.
- Counselor Rec: MAKE SURE TO WAIVE YOUR RIGHTS! My counselor and I don’t really know each other well since it was my first year in the high school. However, because I visited her almost every day due to Questbridge, she grew very fond of me and I’m pretty sure she wrote an awesome letter.
Other
- State (if domestic applicant): Florida
- School Type: Public
- Ethnicity: Hispanic (representando todos mis venezolanos!! los quiero mucho)
- Gender: Male
- Income Bracket: 3 Person Household (a small apartment with two rooms); I have no contact with my father; My mom gains only $21,179 a year to support me and my sister who is in college... so I think Questbridge felt bad for me and realized how much I needed financial aid LOL
- Assets: $0
- Property: $0
- Extenuating Circumstances: what I mentioned above; I have Generalized Anxiety Disorder
- Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): First generation college student, Very low income bracket, Hispanic, gay, anxiety disorder, rank in school, etc.
Why you think you were finalist and general comments: I am not religious, but girl I prayed to every thing/person possible and wished for this every day and I think the fact that I wanted it so bad helped. I thought my unweighted GPA was really low compared to others, but I got proven wrong. Trust me, just because one part of your application is bad, doesn’t mean you won’t get it. I think I was a finalist mainly due to my awesome writing section, low income bracket, course history, and excellent letters of recommendation.
My son is a Finalist!