Hey guys so this is basically a post for anyone considering applying to questbridge and wants to know how the process basically works.
For right now this will just be a quick overview. I come back later and give a more extensive explanation.
In short, Questbridge is kinda like having the ability to apply early decision to up to 12 partner colleges with a guaranteed full tuition coverage if you get into one of them.So there are basically two steps to the process.First, you apply with the questbridge application to the actual program to be selected as a finalist. The deadline for this application is usually like early September (so make sure to have your standardized testing done by then). And the college match form, in which you list the colleges you want your application to be sent to if you are selected as a finalist, is due like about a week after. They let you know in late October whether you are selected as a finalist or not. If you selected as a finalist you now have the ability to apply to 12 of the 35 questbridge partner colleges with questbridge (this year about 4,000 finalists were chosen out of like 12,000 applicants).
You now continue to the college match process. Now, you can either decide to keep going on with the college match, having your application for quest bridge sent to up to 12 colleges ( binding you to them if you get in to them) or you can opt out of college match and apply through quest bridge regular decision. If you opt out of college match and decide to go with regular decision you still get your quest bridge application sent to partner colleges of your choice however you are not guaranteed full tuition (but most of the time they still give you a lot of scholarship money) and the decision is not binding. The fact you are a quest bridge finalist is pretty much like a college “hook” on your application ( kinda like being minority, first-gen., etc…).
In 2014 about 500 got matched during the college match process (decisions come out Dec. 1st) out of the 4000 finalists. About 1500 got accepted to a partner college through quest bridge regular decision.
*As a side note…on the college match ranking form you get 12 slots to rank one of the 35 colleges. You are bound to the colleges in order of how you rank them. For example, if you decide you only want to rank three colleges and fill up the slots with columbia being first choice, Upenn being second, and brown being third. If you are accepted to columbia, you are bound to it because it is your first choice and you don’t even get notification if you got into brown or Upenn. Only if you are rejected to columbia are you able to get matched with Upenn or brown. If you are rejected from columbia but accepted into Upenn, you are bound to Upenn. If you are rejected by all schools you ranks for college match you can still apply through quest bridge regular decision…and the colleges you ranked that rejected you usually just roll your application over to the regular decision applicant pool.
Checking out the questbridge website is a really good way to really learn about the program.
Hope this helps!