Im currently ranking colleges with questbridge and have 3 top schools that i am definitely putting on my list. However I am undecided on whether or not I should rank a fourth unnamed school. Its an amazing school but i feel that if I had a chance to reapply to my top 3 and other schools like them outside questbridge it may not be worth risking binding myself to the fourth. On the other hand matching with my fourth would be a full ride to an amazing school. Any advice would be appreciated
This is a personal choice, but IMO, your chances are higher via Questbridge as the decision is binding if admitted (equivalent to applying ED, except for MIT, which is not binding so you might consider ranking for the sake of ranking if you haven’t already ranked it) AND it’s a guaranteed full-ride. However, it’s a personal decision: I wouldn’t recommend anyone to apply ED unless they LOVED the school, and the same advice goes here.
Keep in mind that the Questbridge Match BENEFITS the APPLICANT, not the SCHOOL: i.e. if Harvard’s your top choice but you would also be fine with Penn, there’s no advantage to ranking Penn above Harvard, as Questbridge only goes on to the next school if you don’t match at the ones before.
Questbridge Matching Advice: https://www.questbridge.org/high-school-students/national-college-match/rankings
Hope that helps!
I appreciate it! And yes MIT Is my number 1. Its definitely a lot of personal preference but I dont exactly have much time to make the final decision. This helps though
And another thing I think my worry lies more with getting rejected from my top choices because of it being the match. Do many students get rejected from the match and then get in regular application or am I just looking too far into it?
I agree that the best odds are with QB. It’s a wonderfully opportunity for you to get matched with any school. Without this program, it’s far more difficult. But if you really have such doubts that you want to take every single opportunity to get into your first choice school, then do it. Let others have the opportunities you don’t so want.
In 2019, of 5,842 finalists, 1,127 were matched, while another 2,000 or so finalists who were not matched were accepted to at least one QB partner, usually with a good financial offer.
@MWolf @user_776288 I’ve heard that Questbridge schools won’t admit you via Questbridge unless your EFC (calculated by each school’s OWN formula) would net you a full-ride under their policies. Ik someone admitted this way RD to a HYPSM with a FA offer that was close to, but not quite a full-ride.
Questbridge’s main purpose is to provide you with the opportunity, and I disagree @cptofthehouse 's last sentence hinting that you’re giving up an opportunity b/c if you’re qualified for Questbridge, you have the potential to get where you need to go in life regardless of it being a HYPSM or not. Make sure to have your RD applications ready, apply to a safety or two if Questbridge allows it, and hope for the best! 
Hope that helps!
SO - if someone fail to match to a school via Questbridge, they can still apply for RD and can still potentially be admitted? Sounds like this scenario would likely be due to financial reasons?
@user_776288 @sonatarhia sorry to be so blunt but i’d like to kindly clarify that some of the things that @PikachuRocks15 and @cptofthehouse said were wrong. Harvard is not partnered with QB, and your chances with the QB Match are NOT higher. the Match is incredibly competitive and not entirely dependent upon your EFC being 0. i know someone who had a 7k EFC and was matched. i also know someone who had a 0 EFC, ranked just one school, did not match to it, moved their application to ED (you can do that for some schools), and got in with a full ride, exactly what they would’ve gotten through the match. plus, every year, tons of students do not match but get into schools partnered with QB, including schools they ranked, during RD with full rides. at an info session i went to they mentioned how QB uses a Match algorithm and it’s really weird. unfortunately QB is not very transparent about it, but my point is that the Match is extremely competitive, and your chances are better RD. that does not mean you shouldn’t rank schools - you absolutely should, because you are essentially getting the chance to apply ED to several schools with a guaranteed full ride - but the Match is far from the end all be all. additionally, QB in general does increase your chances of being accepted to the QB partner schools because of the extra essay space you get. but the QB Match does not. and without QB you still have good chances of getting into top schools with good financial aid since you can just apply through common app (well you don’t have good chances since all of these schools have very low acceptance rates, but you get what i mean. it is not “far more difficult without QB” like cpt said). i hope this was helpful!
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@bowdoinsimp I just gave Harvard as an example, I did not do Questbridge (but know people who did,) and was just giving a comparison between a T5 vs. T20 ranked school and that the rank-order doesn’t matter.
As I said in my second comment, Questbridge provides you with the opportunity to rank schools, and that it’s completely fine (as long as you apply widely) to not rank all schools. Also, not every school allows students to change their application to ED, OP needs to check the schools they’re interested in to confirm.
Your friend may be mistaken about having a 7K EFC, as T20 financial aid policies are very strict in that your COA = Sticker Price - EFC (AS THEY CALCULATE IT, AND NO ONE KNOWS THOSE NUMBERS FOR SURE UNTIL ADMITTED.) The school your friend was admitted to likely calculated their EFC differently than the number your friend has, as otherwise their school would be violating its own FA policies.