<p>I am a junior in high school. My family income is $55,000 in an affluent area (North Shore of Long Island - high cost of living.) My family's savings is 0 and they own no assets ( we don't own a car or house), we are a family of 5.</p>
<p>If I am accepted as a finalist my senior year, I can choose afterwards 8 schools to match, and most of them are binding ones. </p>
<p>What benefit do I receive in doing this? If the school wasn't planning on giving me $0 EFC, being that my family income is $55k, will I now not be matched? </p>
<p>I don’t want to give any advice about ED vs Matching, since I too am a junior and am too conflicted, but I want to clarify a few things for ya.
First of all, you would rank schools within the application. Sidenote: You can be a National College Match Finalist and NOT matched.
Secondly, you DON’T have to rank 8 schools, so if you don’t want to attend any of the 8 you provided, you don’t have to rank them!
(Sorry if it sounds like I’m assuming you didn’t already know this, just trying to make sure you got all the details babe♥)
love you. xoxo
~chaoticpuppy</p>
<p>You don’t wanna rank any schools that you’re the least bit unsure about, since the match is binding! I’d recommend doing the match only for Penn (your 1st choice?) and the 4 non-binding schools (Stanford, Princeton, Yale, MIT). Everywhere else: Forward your Questbridge app for regular decision (if you don’t match). You literally get the same aid.</p>
<p>Here’s how it works:
You must have an EFC of $0 to be matched. However, such EFC doesn’t guarantee a match. Why? It’s possible that the colleges try to manipulate their acceptance rates/etc.for specific rounds. It doesn’t mean you get any less aid, though. If you’re income remains the same, you should be eligible for the same amount (given that you’re admitted).</p>
<p>PS: You might wanna add (or replace with) some of the less selective partner schools to your list, in order to maximize your chances of getting an 100% need school. Admissions were brutal this year, and they’re only getting worse. Not to discourage you, of course. Just trying to increase your options. Also, make sure you pick your colleges based on fit, above anything else. I didn’t. I was lucky enough to get into a great fit anyways, but it could’ve gone the other way lol</p>
<p>The benefit from matching is tremendous, assuming that you’re fully committed to the school.</p>
<p>Although Questbridge schools are fairly generous with their financial aid, some are not as generous as you’d hope. Regular decision Questbridge applicants to some Questbridge schools like UVA and USC may be expected to take out loans/pay more out of pocket than they are capable of, despite their title as “Questbridge finalist.” I know some people in this situation.</p>
<p>If you are willing to attend a school through a binding commitment (college match is like early decision), then I would definitely do match. The difference between Questbridge match students and Questbridge finalist RD admits is the financial aid, which can be significant. As a College Match admit, you would receive a full-ride. If you were a RD admit, that full-ride would not be guaranteed and depending on the schools you ended up getting accepted to, the difference in aid may possibly even differ by 12K a year.</p>
<p>You would have a much better chance applying through ED. College match is very selective, and many people who aren’t chosen though match are people who are perfectly qualified to be accepted to the colleges (and end up getting accepted through RD anyways). Whereas individual college ED acceptance rates are usually around ~25%, match acceptance rates are closer to 5%. If you are absolutely set on a school, I’d advise applying through ED rather than match.</p>
<p>However, you should note:
Early decision is binding, and for many low-income students, this may be a problem. While Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, Columbia and Stanford give very good aid, this is not true for every college. I’m not quite sure how Dartmouth’s financial aid is, but I know that Cornell isn’t as generous as some other schools. A few acquaintances of mine did have to turn down Cornell for financial reasons. Make sure to talk to your parents about the financial aspect of it, try a net price calculator, and make sure that your college choice will be affordable given your projected financial aid for before you decide to commit. </p>
<p>For the 8 schools you listed, no parental contribution is expected below $60,000 a year income (for some schools the threshold is even higher). You would need to come up with about $5000 a year, which breaks down to about $2200 a year for tuition, room and board (which you could pay for through 10 hours a week work-study) and about $2800 in general out-of-pocket costs – books, transport to/from school and misc. expenses, which you could earn over the summer if your parents are unable to help.</p>
<p>Your odds of getting into any of those 8 schools, all with acceptance rates at 15% or below, is not very good based on the minimal information you provided; you live in an over-represented part of the country, you’re not a URM, your family’s income isn’t low enough to qualify for a Pell Grant and I’d guess you are not the first in your family to attend college. Your achievement stats are only mid-range for these top schools. Top colleges love to show how diversified they are in the most general sense, so they compile lists of what percentage of their students are minorities; what percentage receive Pell Grants; what percentage are first generation college students; and then show their regional distribution with the ideal being having students from all 50 states. In addition to the checklist, a not-insignificant percentage of the total number of available seats is allocated to legacy admits, athletes and international students.</p>
<p>Clearly, a single student who can check off multiple boxes would be preferred even with mid-range or lower-range stats. If you don’t meet checklist qualifiers, you are stuck competing with those applicants in the top 1% in the entire country in academic qualifications. My son was Pell Grant eligible, had perfect stats (36 ACT, 1/400 class rank, dual 800 SATs, National AP Scholar), held multiple leadership roles, and had a couple of “best student in my career” letters of recommendation and still only got accepted by half the schools to which he applied – yes, the national competition today is that brutal!</p>
<p>Your best strategy is to supplement your dream school list with some choices that have 20-35% acceptance rates PLUS a safety school that you know will accept you. Then hope for the best.</p>
<p>You’ve listed some of the most highly selective schools among the Questbridge partners. That reduces your chances for a match considerably, because a lot of other applicants will be doing exactly the same thing. If you can include some of the partner schools where your stats place you in that school’s top 25%, your chances for a match will be higher. I believe this post says it all:</p>
<p>My son read that post, researched – online and the Fiske guide – until he found 8 partner schools he was truly happy to commit to, where his stats and interests did look like a strong match, and through good fortune combined with good effort, was matched to his top choice school. Even if he hadn’t been matched, the amount he – and we – learned through he process of researching the partner schools, and the application/aid process in general, was valuable.</p>
Hey! I’m literally in the same situation right now. My scores are actually identical. What did you end up doing and how did everything turn out if you don’t mind answering?
Everywhere else: Forward your Questbridge app for regular decision (if you don’t match). You literally get the same aid.</p>