<p>Does QB automatically forward our QB applications to schools even if we were non-finalists? because I got an email from Rice saying they already have my QB application? </p>
<p>I'm kind of worried because I'm applying to a QB partner college for EA and I don't want them to see/read/consider my QB application :(</p>
<p>Rice does not have your application. Re-read the email. QB forwarding for RD is not even available until after Dec 12th and is limited for non-finalists to the few schools that accept the QB app from non-finalists. In those cases you have to request it. </p>
<p>@honeybee63 This is what Rice wrote on the email: “Note: we already have your QuestBridge application on file.”</p>
<p>Maryleanne - I am going to post this online because the same thing happened to my son last year. Rice actually does have your QB application. My son received the same e-mail last year and all he had to do was submit the Rice Supplement. I also think there might have been some kind of cover sheet where he indicated that he wanted to apply to Rice using the QB application that Rice had on file. This may have actually been part of the supplement (I am not 100% sure). As my son was applying to the Shepherd School of Music, I believe that my son faxed in the Rice supplement and completed the music school application online. The reason I remember faxing in the supplement was because my son completed this by hand and his handwriting is egregious! I wasn’t sure that anyone would be able to read a faxed copy of his handwriting! 
Other than financial aid documents, I am almost positive that he never sent any other application materials to Rice. </p>
<p>@maryleanne, see if this helps you: <a href=“Office of Admission | Rice University”>Office of Admission | Rice University;
<p>Unless you ranked Rice, they would not have your app on file. In any case, if you want them to review your QB app you have to submit the Rice Supplement and the Decision Plan Verification Form before they consider your application submitted. <a href=“http://www.questbridge.org/rice-app-requirements”>http://www.questbridge.org/rice-app-requirements</a></p>
<p>My son didn’t rank any schools, and he has received emails from 10+ schools saying that they have his application.</p>
<p>Honeybee - my son did not rank Rice, was not a finalist and Rice DID have his QB application. He never asked to have his QB app forwarded to Rice. Rice wasn’t even on his radar when he submitted his QB application. It was after he received the aforementioned e-mail that he researched Rice and thought it might be a great fit for him. Also, as happykidsmom stated, my son (as a non-finalist), who only ranked four schools through the early QB process, also received emails from many schools saying that they had his QB application and wanted him to apply. This was way before the RD forwarding deadline at QB.</p>
<p>@maryleanne. I know it must have been a disconcerting email from Rice if you weren’t happy with the quality of your QB app. Here is information (copy and paste) directly from QuestBridge so you can be assured that no college will ever “see/read/consider” your QB app unless you submit it yourself.</p>
<p>QB: Many of our partner schools will reach out to Non-Finalists to encourage them to apply. They recognize that there are many reasons why a student may not be selected as a Finalist, and it doesn’t mean the student would not be a competitive applicant to their school. We do <em>make all applications available</em> to our partner colleges. When students submit the application, one of the notices they agree to states “I understand that my application will be shared with QuestBridge’s partner(s) (college partners and scholarship partners), regardless of if I become a finalist.” <em>They would not, however, actually consider a student for admission unless or until the student indicates their intention to apply either directly or through the QuestBridge Regular Decision form, and they would not actually read a student’s application unless they applied.</em> Students who wish to apply on their own instead of through QuestBridge would be free to do so. </p>
<p>By saying they <em>have</em> your application Rice (and potentially other colleges) are trying to make it easy – to streamline the application process for you and make it known that you could apply with your QB app and save yourself some trouble – but only if you choose to! No one at any college will be reading any application that you do not submit yourself. You are totally in control of the process and what you submit where! </p>
<p>@honeybee63 , that is what Questbridge leads applicants to believe. But it’s no longer true. It should have been applicants’ rights, and theirs alone, to choose which schools, if any, to send their QB applications to. That’s the way it was in the past. The “ranking” and finalist/non-finalist processes are no longer of any value whatsoever–every school gets every application now, whether the student chooses to share their application with that school, or not. The whole “process” of choosing schools to submit to is a farce. Applicants no longer have any control whatsoever over their applications. Questbridge did a huge disservice to applicants this year. They used to have the best interests of the students at heart. I don’t feel that is the case, anymore. I, for one, would not recommend Questbridge to students in the future given their complete disregard for applicants’ “choices” (which were non-existent) this year. </p>
<p>From what I glean from honeybee’s post, the school does not actually read the application. They are just aware that this person has applied to QB. According to the QB’s statement, the schools aren’t reviewing the application and truly determining whether the student is truly a competitive applicant, but rather are just sending emails to students based solely on the fact that they applied to QB.
Plus anything that QB does is with consent. If one doesn’t like the terms, then don’t agree (don’t check the boxes) and don’t apply…
PlusPlus, to be honest, most of the college emails are just spam anyways…Shouldn’t really think twice about an email from _______ college/university.</p>
<p><strong><em>by saying you shouldn’t think twice I meant it as don’t think “_______ is interested in me” because you got an email from them. Of course there are special cases where the school is truly reaching out to you, and that the email isn’t just because your name is on some list they obtained from wherever.(collegboard, etc)</em></strong>
I didn’t mean to just ignore the things you read in the email if you find a school you may be interested in or whatever. That’s the purpose of the emails anyways, so +1 for that college yay.</p>
<p>@chaoticpuppy, what you are saying simply isn’t true. Even students who didn’t “check the boxes” --ANY boxes–had their applications forwarded. The student names aren’t just from “some list”. Questbridge forwarded EVERY application to every school this year, they just didn’t make it clear, at all, to students that they would be doing so. I won’t speculate here as to why they changed their process without fully informing students, but it certainly was not in the student’s best interest (which they were clearly aware of or they would have made the change clear to students). </p>
<p>In the past, students were able to send their QB applications to QB then, if for whatever reason, they chose not to rank, their application was not forwarded until they asked QB to forward it. (See this NYT article as an example of what it was like only two years ago: <a href=“It's No Shortcut, but QuestBridge May Be an Alternate Route to College - The New York Times”>It's No Shortcut, but QuestBridge May Be an Alternate Route to College - The New York Times; ). If they didn’t choose to forward their application at all, no school ever saw it. That is no longer the way QB works, but QB in no way made that clear to students. </p>
<p>Students no longer have any control whatsoever over what QB does with their applications. This should give all future students considering applying to QB pause before hitting that submit button. What students put in an application in September is sometimes not what they want to say in November or December. What students want to say to some schools is not always what they want to say to all schools.QB leads students to believe that they have choices and control over who to distribute their QB applications to. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case, and QB did a huge disservice to students not clarifying their new policies for students. </p>
<p>I understand that it is frustrating for non-finalists who may not be confident in the quality of their applications to know that they are “available” to colleges. But every applicant did sign the app giving permission. Again, here’s a quote from QB:
<<when students="" submit="" the="" application,="" one="" of="" notices="" they="" agree="" to="" states="" “i=”" understand="" that="" my="" application="" will="" be="" shared="" with="" questbridge’s="" partner(s)="" (college="" partners="" and="" scholarship="" partners),="" regardless="" if="" i="" become="" a="" finalist."="" many="" probably="" do="" not="" read="" this="" closely.="">></when></p>
<p>It is absolutely ludicrous to suppose that an overworked admissions office would ever ever ever take the time to read or consider an application that hasn’t been submitted to their college. In what universe does that make any sense at all??? During a busy admissions season, would an admissions officer decide to download a random Questbridge application from a Questbridge non-finalist who hadn’t applied to their college, and read it…just for fun? in their (non-existent) spare time? That’s just a crazy fear. </p>
<p>D4 is a finalist this year and has received zero emails from colleges saying they have her QB application.
As much as one parent doesn’t like the policy (and has every right to disagree with the policy) there’s no doubt that what QB does is what they believe to be in the student’s best interests. Making educational opportunities available to low income students is QB’s only mission and all their programs and policies are directed to those ends. I myself don’t see how this policy is disenfranchising kids, in fact it appears to me to be the opposite – giving non-finalists the chance to apply to colleges using either their QB app or the CA is actually pretty generous since they weren’t chosen as finalists. </p>
<p>@happykidsmom, rather than steer deserving students away from the opportunities QB offers, you could give your feedback to QB about your reaction to this particular policy. Perhaps, suggest that they offer an ‘opt out’ clause for students who don’t want their applications made <em>available</em> to QB colleges. Since it’s something they all agree to when they submit the app, I’m sure it wouldn’t be hard to just make it a box you check (or not). </p>
<p>@honeybee63 - Thanks for the clarifying post (#7). For anyone reading this, Honeybee63 is much more informed than I about the QB process! My son applied EA to a QB partner school after not being selected as a finalist and I don’t think his EA school ever saw his QB application. I know that it wasn’t listed anywhere that he applied to QB on his CommonApp. </p>
<p>@Chaoticpuppy - “Of course there are special cases where the school is truly reaching out to you, and that the email isn’t just because your name is on some list they obtained from wherever” - </p>
<p>Yes - going behind the curtain of admissions is impossible and no one should read too much into an e-mail that says that we are interested, especially e-mails/letters based on SAT/ACT scores. However, I think that if you receive a follow-up e-mail as QB non-finalist AND are interested in that school, you should apply. I can only speak from my son’s experience two years ago as a non-finalist; therefore, all this information is anecdotal. My son received e-mails from almost all the QB partner schools after the finalists were announced. Some of the schools sent follow up e-mails that gave him extensions for applying beyond the actual end date for RD applications and extensions for the SAT II tests. As I stated above, these situations are purely anecdotal and no one should assume that this is the case for him/her. Also, one of the mother’s of a QB finalist who is currently at Yale, indicated that when the potential applicant was presented during the admissions process, the AO stated that the applicant was from QB (her son was working in the Admissions Office and heard this). </p>
<p>@honeybee63 - If I had to venture a guess, I would think that the difference between your daughter not receiving e-mails and non-finalists receiving e-mails is that the QB schools don’t send out follow up e-mails to finalists until the match process is over and an applicant is either matched or not. Last year, I was helping one of the QB applicants who was a finalist who didn’t get matched. He received quite a few e-mails from partner schools asking him to apply after the match results were announced and he wasn’t matched. One of the e-mails was from Columbia where he is a happy freshman now. </p>
<p>IMHO - Unless you feel that your QB application does not represent you well, I would think that it would be a huge plus in the application process to include your QB application when applying to QB partner schools. </p>
<p>^ All excellent observations @momofmusician17. In years of going through this process and mentoring dozens of kids including my own I’ve never known a student who was hindered by the QB process and the vast majority will testify to the many benefits of participating. Making the QB apps <em>available</em> is simply another opportunity for students to take advantage of – or not, as they choose. </p>
<p>NB: Only Questbridge applications that have been submitted to a college by the student will be read or considered. Any Student is free to apply to any college on their own rather than through QB. </p>
<p>Despite the concerns expressed above, I do believe the QB process is designed to provide opportunity for all applicants (finalists and non) and does maintain agency and choice for the student.
@momofmusician17, I remember you :). Glad everything went so well for your S last year! </p>
<p>As a parent of a matched kid from years ago, I agree with honeybee and others that QB as a whole is advantageous, whether finalist or non finalist. I have never heard that submitting a QB app has dinged anybody’s application, quite the opposite. Furthermore, how much can a kid need to change their app or edit their essays between September and Nov/Dec? </p>
<p>I, too, am the mother of a previous QB scholar. I, too, thought I understood the process. As Honeybee clearly showed in her first post in this thread, she didn’t understand the non-finalist process any better than anyone else. I am very familiar with the QB program from the finalist side. The non-finalist side is completely different and unless you have been there, you really should not be casting judgment on teenagers who were were not informed as to the ramifications of participation in QB if you are not a finalist. They (and most of you) were led to believe the process was one thing. In fact, it was entirely different. </p>
<p>After all of the college decisions are in, I will revisit this thread and fully explain the concerns of the three non-finalists who I know personally and who are very upset with the way their applications were handled by QB. Their concerns are valid, regardless of what those of you sitting on the other side of the fence might believe. There are very valid reasons why future students should at least be informed of some of the things that happen when applicants are not chosen as finalists. QB should have done this. They did not.</p>
<p>@happykidsmom, as an adult in the life of the disgruntled teen, maybe you can steer him toward expressing his concerns - and yours as well - directly to Questbridge where perhaps you can find some remediation and maybe even effect some change. Complaining on an internet forum is certainly ineffective and probably unsatisfying, unless your goal is just to indict QB. </p>
<p>honeybee, my son is far from disgruntled. Once again, you speak with authority about something/someone of which/whom you know little/nothing about. Your judgmental attitude is very unappealing, especially coming from someone with your perspective. The title of this thread is “Questbridge Non-finalist Applications”. This is a topic you seem to know little about and have little positive, encouraging, accurate or non-passive/aggressive advice to offer. You have absolutely no idea who has contacted whom or what has occurred. Your “advice” and attitude are truly unhelpful in the context of THIS thread and to the original concerns of the OP. I am sure you have much to offer on other threads. </p>