<p>That makes sense for some students. But for others, the match program is exactly what they want. </p>
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<p>That doesn’t make sense. There were 3500 finalists, but they did not all rank Yale as one of their choices. IIRC recently Stanford had accepted something like 120 RD+REA combined, and 1100 people had ranked Stanford. That’s an 11% acceptance rate, about the same for REA, and higher than the overall admit rate. The greater point here is that you can’t compare match acceptance rate to a school’s early admit rate; many students get in RD, and it is often the case (as admissions directors at QB’s partner colleges have said) that QB students may have been looked over if they were just in the general pool, without an application that allows them to give a full description of the background and adversities. Finally, it doesn’t make sense to compare QB match admit rate to early admit rates at individual schools, since you can rank up to 8 schools at a time, and are matched to the highest college that you ranked that ranked you as well. That changes the whole mentality about admissions.</p>
<p>Agree. But I feel largely because most aren’t aware of how competitive the match round really is. It’s very easy to become a finalist, and the rate of how many students would be matched isn’t released, so it skews the students’ decisions.
By the way, merely being a QB finalist is enough because they’re entitled to the same (or most) benefits that QB matchers get. And they’ll even have more chance to get in during the early round.</p>
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<p>Source? I doubt the number is that high. But to be fair, getting in somewhere of Stanford caliber EARLY will be a very big psychological factor. With REA, students will have more chance .</p>
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<p>Why not? In a sense, match is like early admit</p>
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<p>1) It isn’t true that they’ll be overlooked. The disadvantaged factors will be stated in the application. Students can use the main essay and supplements to highlight themselves. Wise students regardless of socioeconomic status should be able to do it well.</p>
<p>2) The Questbridge app is a double blade in itself. Out of the three essays, the first one (autobio) is the most flexible. The next two are prompt-specific; therefore they could make the students feel unnatural in writing them. As said, they could be good practice essays.</p>
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<p>As said above, 1% to 8 schools in the early round versus as high as 50% to your top choice early. Students should be the judges of their own.</p>
<p>Another point: I don’t understand why colleges promote the use of QB when they have to pay QB for every student they admit via the match program when they could do it for free via the early round.</p>
<p>I heard that directly from the CEO, but there was an article a few years ago in the Daily about the number of students Stanford accepted (I’ll post a link if I can find it). Yes, often ~120 students are accepted to Stanford between the match and RD process.</p>
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<p>As I explained above: it’s because you can rank 8 schools. That inherently makes the likelihood of admission much more difficult to predict statistically and thus makes no sense to compare it to simple early admit rates at individual schools.</p>
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<p>I didn’t say they will be overlooked; I said they may be. </p>
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<p>The point is that the Common App does not provide enough space for these students to elaborate on their background. As a previous applicant and reader of many QB applicants’ essays since then, I know that for most students there’s no way they’d be able to fit all that background info onto the Common App.</p>
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<p>I’d say they’re still relatively open-ended enough for students to be able to discuss all the topics they need to cover. But I suppose that’s opinion; perhaps you’re interpreting the prompts too narrowly.</p>
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<p>I’m sorry but that’s not how statistics works…</p>
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<p>Actually, I’ve heard that it’s a flat fee to participate as a partner college - last I heard something like $40,000. But consider that these colleges often get more than $2 million a year in application fees.</p>
Assuming that is true, and the number of those who ranks Stanford is 1100, the percentage will actually go down since many finalists can (and do) forward their apps to Stanford in the RD round.</p>
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Check and balance will alleviate the chance of their being overlooked. It is not perfect, however. But if the students apply EA/ ED, they actually stand out better than their peers since the pools within the EA/ ED generally attract more upperclass applicants. When the low-income students are considered in their own pool only, their credentials will not stand out as much except for those who are truly outstanding because everyone will be held to the same standards.</p>
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<p>1% to 8 schools may seem like a lot, but they’re actually not.</p>
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<p>QB app may be able to fit more background info, but remember that it doesn’t allow for changes once submitted. Using the common app, students can alter their essays/ info when they find out a mistake to send it to different schools.</p>
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<p>Whatever the case, I think the fact that colleges have to pay for the students significantly increases the selectivity of the match program.</p>
<p>Why does it matter that Harvard doesn’t do QuestBridge? Those same disadvantaged students can request a fee waiver and if accepted, experience the brilliant Financial Aid machine that is Harvard.</p>
<p>My son is a Questbridge Scholar. Last March we were at their intro shindig on Stanford campus in Palo Alto, CA introducing scholars and Partner colleges’ admit reps.</p>
<p>I sidled up to a table and evesdropped sureptitiously, but in full view, listening to the current (last year’s and maybe the same guy this year) head of - chief - executive officer in charge of Questbridge explain some bare-facts to a Mom and her daughter who were there to try to get in even though they missed the entire Questbridge app process - and of course Feb deadline last year. Note: miss their deadlines: no dice, you’re not in the game.</p>
<p>This big chief guy is an alumni of…hmmmm, it was either Stanford or Harvard, but he knew the skinny on quite a lot. </p>
<p>1) Stanford only admits a handful of actual Californians, and even tho we’re in Northern Nevada quite close to CA, my son is in the geographic got-an-edge pool for admissions.</p>
<p>2) Harvard tried to buy-out Questbridge. There was some bad blood, some sort of unpleasant politics, and Questbridge banned Harvard from their scene. Got it from the norses’ mouth, but not in writing, so maybe I just heard unverifiable gossip, but I’ll wager Harvard’s out due to some political ballet.</p>