<p>I'm not interested in more than 5/6 schools on the Partner College lists. </p>
<p>Some because I'm male (rules out Scripps and Wellesley, although I would probably apply to the latter if I was a girl). Also, the application costs would probably drive up the wall. Is it uncommon for applicants to rank less than 8 colleges? I wouldn't want to seem arrogant if I only applied to my favorite 4 or so.</p>
<p>I only ranked one (: I think that was definitely an anomaly…</p>
<p>Like it is for you, only a few colleges from my (already short) college list were Questbridge colleges, including my first choice college. I realized that if I ranked those few, and was matched to one below #1, I wouldn’t have a chance to find out if I could’ve gotten into my first choice in early/regular decision admissions. So I decided only to rank my first choice, and simply reapply early decision if I didn’t get matched, since the college allowed it. I only did this, though, because I absolutely LOVED that college, enough to give up being matched to other colleges. I don’t know if that was a wise or foolish decision, but it did work out (; While I was waiting to see if I got matched, I sent in my regular decision applications to all the other colleges I was interested in.</p>
<p>It might be “uncommon” if you’re going for schools like Stanford and Yale, which are still “lottery schools” even through Questbridge. Unless you’re dead set on one of these schools, it’d be better to rank up to eight and have a better chance of getting matched to a school you could picture yourself attending, even if it wasn’t your first choice. </p>
<p>I think you should only rank those four schools – after all, if you somehow ended up matched to a #7 that you threw in there just because, you’d likely regret ranking more than the four. Also, you lose out on the chance to “reapply” to those four in early/regular admissions.</p>
<p>Good luck with the process!! </p>
<p>**What do you mean by application costs? The Questbridge application is free…
Unless you mean CSS Profile/test scores fees – you can get waivers for those (:</p>
<p>Do not worry, I am not ranking 8 schools, either (if I’m a finalist, that is). Sure, all of the QB schools are great, but keep in mind: only 10% of finalists get matched. That means, if you don’t get matched to your dream school, you still have a good chance of getting in. I think it’s a better idea to rank colleges you are comfortable with attending (whether it be 2 schools or 6), and then hope for the best. Because, as Arydesia stated, if you slap down a random school just to fill the extra slots, and they accept you, well, then you have yourself an issue.
I believe I am only ranking 5-6, but I am interested in other QB partners. If I don’t get matched, then I will forward my app to those 6 schools plus the other ones I am interested in for RD.
And the number of colleges you rank will not make you seem arrogant. Most of these schools are binding, so if you do not feel comfortable with being bonded to a certain school for the next 4 years of your life, then do not rank it!</p>
<p>I also only applied to four schools through QuestBridge as a finalist: Yale, Columbia, Princeton, and MIT. I wasn’t matched to any but since of those four schools, MIT was the only early action, I just forwarded my application. Then I waited and finished my other (regular) applications. I applied to 16 schools, I think… It’s hard to be sure when there are so many and this was almost a year ago. Then I found out that I had been deferred from MIT. When all the results came out I was accepted to 11 of the 16 schools including Princeton and MIT (finally 
). I think that I made a good decision; while it was a tiny bit more to fill out the regular applications, all that writing and score sending for QuestBridge served me well and it wasn’t until later that I realized that because of QuestBridge, I had been given three chances at admission to MIT (QuestBridge, EA, and regular, since I was defered). Even though I wasn’t matched I got an awesome package at all my schools (ESPECIALLY the QB ones). </p>
<p>By only ranking the four schools I would have been thrilled to go I wasn’t disappointed and matched with my eighth school. </p>
<p>If you want any advice or stats just ask.</p>
<p>Sincerely, A Happy QuestBridge-er.</p>