Questbridge vs Early Action/Early Decision

Hi! For those who are aware of the Questbridge Scholarship program, would it make more sense to apply through the national college match program or just early action/decision to one school? Are there advantages for doing one or the other?

Applying via questbridge gives you the opportunity to basically apply ED to many schools at once (for free), and you can still apply ED1/2 and EA even if you’re not matched. My daughter wasn’t matched but was able to apply ED to a questbridge school the day after match decisions and was accepted. She’s in a few QB groups and anecdotally it seems most kids eventually end up at a questbridge or equally great school. It’s definitely not a guarantee, and some kids felt the questbridge app didn’t show their best light- if you’re going to do questbridge make sure you give the app the attention it deserves and really sell yourself.

@milgymfam Congratulations to your daughter! How did the financial aid portion work out once she was accepted outside of the QB program?

I, too, have a daughter who is currently a QB college prep scholar.

New to CC, but eligibility to QuestBridge has an income limit, is that correct? Does anyone know off the top of their head what’s the max income level to qualify? TIA

@sonatarhia QB guidelines here, general cutoff is $65K for family of 4 but that’s not a hard and fast rule. https://www.questbridge.org/high-school-students/national-college-match/who-should-apply

@RedshoesMom it was the same as it would have been had she matched to the school, with the exception of a small (under $2,000) parent portion- which matched our EFC. No loans at all. She wasn’t accepted as a prep scholar though.