<p>I'm going into 12th grade. At the end of 11th grade Quest Bridge sent me a letter recommending that I apply for the college prep scholarships so I did but I wasn't a finalist. I have straight As for all of high school so far and I take APs and I have good ACT and SAT scores but my family isn't super troubled economically or anything. I think our total income is about $50,000 a year but it's confusing because both of my parents' incomes fluctuate depending on how much work they can get at the moment. Also, they are separated with, I think, shared custody of me and my brother. Oh, and for reference, I am white. </p>
<p>So basically, I don't know if I'm the kind of person quest bridge is looking for and I know it's so hard to be a finalist so I don't want to put so much time and work into the application if I'm completely out of the range economically.</p>
<p>It is not hard to be a finalist. 47% got it last year. Pretty much, if your SAT is above 1600, you write solid essays, and you rank at the top 20% of the class, make below $65000, you’re guaranteed to get it. Your income level ($50,000) is fine.</p>
<p>You probably didn’t get it last year because your essays may have been weak, or you reported a household income that fell well outside of the 65000 cutoff, or you may have been missing some application items. </p>
<p>I’d give QuestBridge a chance because it is an opportunity to apply to 35 of the nation’s best schools. Even if you are not named a finalist, you can still forward the Questbridge app to about a 1/3 of the partner schools, and receive free applications from them.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info. I think I’ll go for it!</p>
<p>Actually, I’ll have to think about it some more.</p>
<p>Before you apply for the match take a look at your CPS app and figure out what your weak points were. Also know that the match itself is very competitive but the process of becoming a finalist is not nearly as competitive.</p>