This past year I was selected as a National College Match Finalist for QuestBridge, however, I was not matched with any schools through the early or regular decision processes. Initially, I decided to fall back on Rochester Institute of Technology where I received $50,000 per year(financial aid/scholarships/grants/federal loans and work-study), however, due to financial circumstances I will not be attending. Instead, I will be moving to California (from Connecticut, Fairfield County) to attend a community college (likely Orange Coast College) for the Spring semester in hopes of transferring to the University of Southern California.
After speaking with some friends from the QuestBridge 2019 National College Match, I discovered that I can take a gap year and do QuestBridge a second time, and thus, here is my question: Can I apply for the QuestBridge National College Match again even though I will be attending a community college for the Spring semester, which starts the month following the end of the National College Match?
My desired major is Computational Neuroscience and is offered at select universities in the US, here are most (but not all):
-Harvard University
-Boston University
-Wesleyan University
-University of Southern California
-Columbia University
-Carnegie Mellon
-Stanford University
For some academic background:
-SAT: 1400
-Math: 800
-EBRW: 600
-GPA (weighted): 4.53
-GPA (unweighted): 3.94
-Class Rank: 4 of 430
-Ethnicity: White
-High School: Brien McMahon High School, Norwalk, CT
-Extracurricular Activities: Drum Corps (4 years), Marching Band (4 years), Indoor Percussion (4 years, founder), Robotics club (3 years), Golf team (2 years), Supermarket bagger/salesman (3 years, job), Student music educator (1 year, founder, volunteer)
-Disabilities: Dyslexia (Dysgraphia)
Why are you moving to CA? You could do community college where you are and then apply for transfer to USC which is a private university.
Your stats are good enough to get you serious merit aid - even a full-ride - outside of the Questbridge system. Your best bet probably is to plan a gap year, and apply to a new list that is focused on large merit aid as well as the QB program.
First of all, is your family moving to CA or just you? If you’re under 24 you can’t establish residency on your own except in rare circumstances. (Won’t matter for USC of course, but will make community college not-so-cheap.)
Secondly, yes, it’s likely that doing any college coursework will disqualify you for first-year admissions through Questbridge. But I agree, don’t take anybody’s word for this - inquire directly.
And thirdly, you are constraining your options far more than necessary by limiting your search to schools that explicitly have a Computational Neuroscience major. There are quite a few more schools where you can study this under a different name. To give just one example, the Cognitive Science department at Pomona (another Questbridge school) has a Computation-focused track, and ample neuroscience offerings. Also check out schools like URochester, Case Western Reserve, and Vassar (which is a QB school) for similar cross-disciplinary opportunities through their cognitive & brain sciences (name varies) departments. Also, the few large, elite flagship U’s that meet need for low-income students from out of state - UMichigan, UVA, UNC - should have the breadth and depth for you to choose this focus as well. (Note that the same financial aid guarantee does not apply for transfer applicants.) Also take a look at Macalester, which offers a CogSci concentration as well, that can be tilted toward computation and neuroscience, and which has one of the highest acceptance rates among the Questbridge schools. Your odds of matching will be much better if you don’t confine your choices to the very most competitive schools on their list.
I suspect you would be much better off taking a gap year (i.e. no community college enrollment) and getting some sound advice here on application strategies, both within Questbridge and at full-need-met schools outside of QB.
I send QB an inquiry about it 20 minutes before I made this post. But also, I’m not going to be confining my options to just USC. I am aware of many other programs that also offer my major, and I will be applying for transfer to those schools as well. However, since USC is my dream school, I feel that it would be best to take the opportunity to be part of the articulated programs for USC.
It is just me who will be moving to California. I have a cousin that I will be living with. Also, I just want to make it clear that I am not betting everything on QuestBridge. It would be great to have another shot at QuestBridge, but if that is not possible, so be it.