<p>I've been looking at the Questbridge website, and I saw that for the National College Match there are two processes: College Match & Regular Decision Match.</p>
<p>I'm really confused about this. Can someone explain them to me. I know that College Match allows you to rank your colleges, but does it choose which college you get matched with randomly? Do you not get to pick which one you want? I only have one college in mind that I want to go to, (Rice) so would it be best to do the regular decision? Does the regular decision cover all 4 years of college though? What is the difference between the scholarships of Match & Regular Decision?</p>
<p>I'd really appreciate any help or info! Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>Hey I think I can be of some help. I think I can best explain with a scenario. Say you like Rice, Yale and Penn in that order. Say rice rejects you, but yale and penn accept you. Because yale is highest on the list, you will go to Yale. Say you get accepted to all three, then you will go with the highest college that accepted you (rice). Essentially, College Match gives you 8 ED’s. But you don’t want that apparently. You only really want Rice. That’s cool too. In that case, you will want to forgo the Questbridge Match Round, and go to the QuestBridge RD. By doing this, you get the fee waiver, but you aren’t bound to going to a college you don’t like (say Yale). In addition, you still get to choose one ED school (in your case, you would pick Rice). </p>
<p>The difference is- if you are accepted to Rice via the QuestBridge Match then all 4 years are fully covered. Via Regular Decision Match, there is no guarantee that all of your tuition will be paid for. That is not to say you won’t still get a really good deal (as a questbridge finalist, you would have proved yourself to be a high-achieving low income student), but you might have to meet them a little bit of the way. I hope this helps! I just went through this process. PM me if you have any other questions! I’d be glad to help!</p>
<p>Hello. Sorry for interrupting, but for Questbridge RD I can still apply to 1 ED school? That would only be QB right? And what about RD regular schools outside of QB like Cornell? </p>
<p>^ are you a junior?<br>
For QB, you will match schools (ED) before you find out if you are matched… that’s part of the process. Once you are not matched, you are only a finalist and can apply to any school you want (ED2, RD, etc). </p>
<p>You will have some QB advantages and should get outstanding FA offers (to QB schools you are accepted to), but you will not get a 4 year “full ride” guarantee.</p>
<p>Generally, you can choose whether or not to forward/use your QB application in application to other schools (after the match period). Some schools however require that you do (MIT), however most schools will use the app as a supplemental. I believe it is the QB app that gets you the application fee waiver as well.</p>
<p>If you participate in the match and get matched to any of the schools that you ranked (with the exception of the few non-binding schools) you would not be able to participate in RD, you can also not do EA (we a few exceptions) or ED to outside schools if you participate in the match. If you don’t get matched or get matched to a non-binding school then you can do RD to schools outside of QB (it is actually encouraged).</p>
<p>Expected Family Contribution = 0 ----> Matched (Not always, though. This is an implicit requirement for being matched -not a guarantee.)</p>
<p>Expected Family Contribution > 0 ----> Deferred towards regular decision</p>
<p>Basically, if the school determines that you can pay a certain amount (even if it’s just $100 a year, for example), you won’t get matched because, technically, they can’t guarantee you a “full ride.”</p>
<p>If your income is low enough, you can get nearly a full ride through regular decision. ;)</p>