<p>I've seen these posts a lot, so I thought it would be good to include a guide about the Match process and whether it is worthwhile or not to do it.</p>
<p>The College Match Process is a unique QuestBridge process which allows students to apply to up to 8 partner schools early. The application targets more low income relevant issues and is more substantial than the Common App, asking for a variety of short answers as well. The process happens extremely early, even before ED1.</p>
<p>Here are some facts about the process.
1) Only about 50% of students who apply to QuestBridge can apply to the College Match (those students who are named finalists).
2) While the application is more tedious, most of the partner colleges tend to be nicer about application requirements. Most of the liberal art colleges require only tax information. Brown doesn't require its students to submit a supplement. However, some schools are more difficult to apply to. Schools like U'Chicago, Princeton, and Stanford ask for the Common Application as well as the Questbridge application, as well as their college supplements. You can see individual school requirements by clicking a partner college on the partner website and clicking "App Requirements".
3) Around 10% of finalists who rank schools are "matched" to schools. This means that they have been awarded a scholarship that covers at the minimum the full cost of tuition, room, board, and books, with no loans.
4) In most cases, if a finalist is matched to a school, he or she is expected to go to that school and withdraw all applications. The only exceptions are Stanford, Princeton, MIT, and Yale; they're also the most ranked schools (and hence the toughest to get matched to).
5) International and undocumented students are guaranteed to be considered only by certain schools. These include: Brown, Grinnell, Pomona, Princeton, Swarthmore, University of Chicago, Washington & Lee, Williams, and Yale for undocumented students, and Brown, Carleton, Grinnell, Pomona, Princeton, Swarthmore, University of Chicago, Washington & Lee, and Yale for international students. The website however says: "The schools that are not listed may still consider students who are not U.S. Citizens or Permanent Residents on a case-by-case basis. If there is a school that you are very interested in, you may still include that school in your rankings list even if it is not listed above."
6) Underrepresented minority students, and students from the South, are more likely to be matched. Compare the Match Recipient Profile to the Finalist Profile (both available on the website). The matched students also have higher SAT scores, better class ranks, and are more likely to be the first generation to attend a college, compared to finalists. While causation can not be inferred from statistics, these are the trends that happen in most years.
7) One can not be rejected from QuestBridge National Match. The only possible results are 'matched' or 'not matched'. This means that those who aren't matched, or matched to a non-binding, can apply to all of the schools, even those that didn't take them in match. This is very different from applying through any process, where rejection is possible, even common.
8) Match schools have gotten anywhere from 1-31 students each year. The real number is likely to be higher, as some matched students may have been matched elsewhere.</p>