Would you recommend I apply to college through the questbridge program?

<p>I'm just wondering if it is recommended for me. I have all the qualifications for what they say is a common questbridge finalist. Most of the schools I've been planning on applying to were Questbridge schools, but I wanted to apply to Harvard early decision. I know my chances are extremely slim when it comes to Harvard acceptance, so would it probably be more beneficial to me to try and get into a questbridge school?
Are your chances of acceptance higher if you apply through questbridge?
Also, what about the difference between apply questbridge early decision or just regular decision?
Is applying through questbridge regular decision going to yield the same amount of financial aid as if you got in through the normal application? </p>

<p>Sorry a lot of questions and random, haha, any help would be greatly appreciated. :) </p>

<p>Chances of acceptance with questbridge match isnt necessarily higher, because only a small percentage of QB finalists get matched. </p>

<p>QB early decision is through their “College Match” scholarship. You are binded to attend the school
QB regular decision is also through QB essays, but with a later deadline and you are not binded to the school</p>

<p>QB regular decision and applying on your own will yield the same amount of aid. Both QB students and regular applicants receive aid based on the FAFSA.</p>

<p>(I’m not an expert on Questbridge programs, so if anybody feels that I shared incorrect info, please feel free to correct me!)</p>

<p>I suggest you read the Questbridge website thoroughly, especially the NCM process. Questbridge works best for students who really understand how it works and what the program is really doing: <a href=“QuestBridge | National College Match”>http://www.questbridge.org/for-students/ncm-national-college-match&lt;/a&gt;. Also, this flowchart is really helpful: <a href=“http://www.questbridge.org/ncm-flowchart”>http://www.questbridge.org/ncm-flowchart&lt;/a&gt;. And these guidelines are useful as well: <a href=“http://www.questbridge.org/images/stories/pdfs-documents/cm14_application_guidelines.pdf”>http://www.questbridge.org/images/stories/pdfs-documents/cm14_application_guidelines.pdf&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>That said, If you have your heart set on Harvard, you could do this: Apply to the QB NCM program in September ( added advantage of having your essays etc. done early and you can re-use these essays later for the common app if necessary). On October 21, finalists will be announced. If you’re a finalist, that’s a National award to put on your app’s and you have automatic fee waivers. If you’re very low income QB will even give you waivers for the CSS profile (which is the most $$$ part of the application process after the college app fees). Then you can decide whether you want to participate in the ‘match’ part of the NCM. You have the opportunity to ‘rank’ up to 8 colleges for early decision acceptance including 4 non-binding: Yale, Stanford,Princeton, MIT. This differs from other ED programs in that you are NOT rejected if you’re not matched - your application simply moves on to the next phase ED II or RD.
However, if your heart is set on Harvard you could ‘opt out’ of match and EA to Harvard. After you get your decision from Harvard, you can still use your QB application to apply RD to other colleges.
OR if you’re partial to any of the QB non-binding partner schools, you can rank those colleges and if you happen to get matched, you have that decision in your back pocket so to speak and you could still apply RD to Harvard. </p>

<p>If you’re just doing the Harvard thing bc it’s Harvard, don’t let it steer your whole application process. My kids visited and really didn’t like Harvard (except the dorms) so never even applied. But if you really love Harvard with eyes wide open, then give it a shot. An amazing number of Questbridge kids got into Harvard both early and RD last year. Questbridge has fantastic partner colleges that you may not know about so look at all of them. </p>

<p>For most eligible kids, Questbridge provides all kinds of support, perks and advantages, so do your research and see how you can make it work for you! </p>

<p>Honeybee, if you aren’t satisfied with your QB app, and would rather only sub!it the common app, how do you go about claiming your fee waivers since ur not forwarding them your QB app.</p>

<p>If you don’t qualify for the Common App fee waiver then there will be a box to check with ‘Questbridge fee waiver’ as an option under each college’s specific questions section of the CA. You’ll see it when you get there. But you probably qualify for the CA waiver and won’t need to use the QB option.</p>

<p>btw if you want someone to reply you need to put an @ before their name otherwise they will never know you posted. Honeybee63 won’t know know you asked a Q unless you type @honeybee63 </p>