Let’s say I made it as a Match finalist. Before finding out about Questbridge, my plan was to apply to Cornell College of Human ecology Early Decision or Northwestern early decision. However, QuestBridge gives me the option to apply to 12 amazing colleges I would also love to attend. Would applying ED or QuestBridge be better for me? Is applying to 12 schools going to increase my chances of getting into at least one? Or do I have a higher chance of getting into the one school I ED to?
Basically, what are the chances I get into at least one of the 12 schools through QuestBridge vs the chances I get into Cornell or Northwestern ED?
Questbridge’s like ED times 12. I don’t see a downside.
It will depend a little bit on which 12 you apply to and how good a candidate you are, and how many well qualified Quest Bridge candidates apply that same year. Also, will you follow all the recommended rules? I had a Quest Bridge candidate apply to a college where I interview refuse the optional interview and get rejected.(not my decision, admissions makes all the decisions, I am only a volunteer) . Quest bridge is designed to get you into the best college you can get into, but not every student qualifies. The idea is that Quest Bridge will advise you, though, what to do, they are there to help. Race and income are factors for Quest Bridge.
In some cases, low income will count against you, in some ED applications, outside of Quest Bridge. I ma not familiar with how Human Ecology works at Cornell. Are you a New York State resident for that particular college at Cornell? I believe New York State residents are favored for some but not all of the public school parts of Cornell University. Human Ecology is a statutory college at Cornell, as I understand it.
Pennsylvania residents are favored for admission to private U of Penn too, its a pretty complicated admissions landscape when you are talking about highly selective colleges.
I am a resident of California. I did not know low income can count against me. Does applying through QuestBridge eliminate that possibility and have it benefit me instead? I’m Asian and my family if 4 has an income of ~$35,000.
My Stats:
SAT: 1510
UW GPA: 4.0
W GPA: 4.28
Class Rank: 1 out of 560 (shared with about 20 others)
I play a varsity sport and hold high board positions for 2 clubs at school. I also work my part time job a lot.
Many if not most of QuestBridge’s college partners are need blind anyways.
Yes, colleges on the Questbridge list WANT lower income students, which is why they partnered with Questbridge.
Most colleges don’t meet need for lower income families so they don’t count your socio economic status against you, they don’t care since they don’t make it financially possible for you to attend. (In some cases, they are public universities located in states where the state has a generous policy toward lower income students so te state picks up the slack, such as in California. In many states, the state doesn’t and students need to take on loans to attend the public, instate university they’ve been admitted to. This is ‘need blind, does not meet need’. ) That’s the cast majority of colleges.
Some colleges have such great endowment that they can afford to admit students without regard for their financial need - Amherst, Harvard, Grinnell, MIT… This is ‘need blind, meet need’. Most colleges on the Questbridge list are on this list. There are very few of them.
Then, some colleges on the Questbridge list are ‘meet need, need aware’. It means they know their budget can’t handle all the qualified lower income applicants. So, they promise to meet full need for accepted applicants, so that they can attend. But the more money you need, the more difficult it is to get in. Questbridge allows you to be treated as if they were need blind meet need, not need aware - in fact, through Questbridge, what could be a downside becomes a hook since through it they’re actively looking for low income.
@HKimPOSSIBLE any advice for this poster?
I would say that it depends as ED/EA acceptance rates are much higher than QB Match rates. This doesn’t mean that you wouldn’t get matched, it just means that you need to go into the process with your eyes wide open. If you only plan on applying to 2 schools (Cornell and Northwestern) during the match process, I would say that you have a better chance applying ED and noting your QB Finalist Status. Unless it has changed, Northwestern requires the Common/Coalition App. It did for this past admission cycle. If you look at the number of finalists and assume at least half of them are applying to the T20 schools, then look at the number of matches and do the math. The percentages are very low. If you are planning on applying to 12 schools, then I would do the match. Two, I would lean toward ED.
My daughter was not matched, but was accepted RD to quite a few QB schools. I am the first to admit that the months between December and March were quite nerve wracking. BTW, her FA is the same as it would have been had she been matched. However, this is not true for all schools. I know from someone else that Vassar gives much better FA to match recipients than it does during RD.
Good luck.
The only time financial need may count against you, is if you apply ED to schools that look at Financial need as a criteria for admission (meaning that they don’t have enough aid for everyone they admit )
Some colleges are need blind and you may be better off applying to those.
. I think all schools participating in Quest Bridge are need blind.
You mentioned Cornell Ecology which is a statutory college with different rules for admission than the main Arts and sciences part of Cornell University.
I would call financial aid at Cornell and ask directly about the Human Ecology program, 1, if they favor NY State residents, and 2. are they need blind.
Also you could post that question under Cornell University’s page on CC.
Also Asian may be overrepresented in some US colleges, but not others. Vanderbilt comes to mind
as a school that actively wants to increase Asian American student population as of a few years ago.
I don’t know how Quest Bridge treats Asian Americans, ask them. Also if you are Pacific Island Asian American or South East Asian American that may qualify as underrepresented while Indian Asian American, Chinese American may not.
I can testify to Coloradomama’s comment. Vanderbilt has one of the largest percentages of Asians/Asian-Americans on campus of all QB partners. I went there a couple weeks ago, and the numbers don’t lie. They are certainly not a minority.