Personally, I’d like to see less of the top 10 - which are all really similar and even #12 is - and add schools like - and not saying it has to be these but - Bates, Case Western, Holy Cross instead of UND (they are high ED although need aware), Davidson, Grinnell - I’m just saying - Duke and NU are the same as the Ivies, etc.
But ultimately it’s your list and you do as you feel is best for you.
Do you have true reasons for each of these schools?
Question for another - if the best odds are say Richmond and Denison, does it hurt to rank them so low? Do the schools see the rank - or where you ranked them?
Notre Dame is a Catholic university, but it also has a Muslim Students Association, regular Friday prayers on campus, and a pretty welcoming interfaith community from the Muslim students that I’ve spoken to.
Schools can’t see where you ranked them! QuestBridge works like a domino chain: they start with your #1 choice and move down the list until a school accepts you. If, for example, Richmond is #1 and Harvard is #10, you’d have no way of knowing whether Harvard would have taken you, because the process would be more likely to stop at Richmond. That’s why some people rank Ivies and other top choices first, because they want to know if an Ivy would have taken them before the match stops. Ranking Richmond or Denison low won’t hurt my chances at those schools if my list reaches them.
Yeah — University of Richmond and Washington & Lee historically take fewer students through QuestBridge compared to some of the bigger names, so the match admits there are a bit rarer.
And this year is actually Harvard’s first time participating in QuestBridge, so no one really knows yet how they’ll handle match selections or how many students they’ll take!
Honestly, I feel great about them.
I think my essays are some of the best work I’ve done — they really show my voice and story, and I believe they’ll land exactly how I want.
And my letters of recommendation… I’ve gotten them from a few different teachers (Mostly AP teachers), from what I’ve been told, they’re full of depth about my accomplishments, curiosity, and the way I would contribute to a schools campus.
That’s what I was wondering - why I asked - Princeton may be the dream, but if you know it’s not happening…well that one is close to home - but Harvard or wherever - wondering if they should move below the easier to get into schools.
OP seems confident it doesn’t matter. So he can go with that.
That’s not how the QB match works. Every school that a QB finalist ranks on their list receives their app. Then, every school reviews apps and tells QB which applicants they will offer full scholarships. The QB algorithm then does its thing and matches the applicant with the highest ranked school that is offering the applicant a full scholarship. Schools don’t know where they stand in a given applicant’s ranked list.
Interesting. So a school has basically no control over how many kids they get? They could say “We’ll take these 40 kids” and wind up with none of them?
Schools can control that by admitting the number of QB applicants that history and/or their predictive analytic models suggest they need to get to whatever their number is.
I’m not sure what the options are if the schools under yield. Remember, most finalists don’t match, so schools are conservative in the number of applicants they say they will admit.
Seems different in several ways from the medical residency matching process:
In that system, students and schools rank each other after the interview process, so the student knows which schools are potentially interested in it.
In that system, the programstrong text ranks the students, which is sounds like is not the case here.
in that system, there is a fixed and finite number of spots at each program, so each program is more assured of getting the number of residents it’s seeking.
It seems to me (maybe I am wrong) that QB colleges and students both submit a rank list.
If the college ranks a student first, but the student ranks that college last, the student can match to that particular college if they did not match to any of their higher ranked preferences.
If I am correct (and I may not be), then it will not hurt this student to put a more competitive (or preferred) school first.
My daughter was part of a match and this is how it worked, but as I mentioned it may be different for QB.
It allows students to be honest with their preferences without hurting their chances.
I assume so at the schools that consider DI in the admissions decision, but I don’t know that for sure (when a school is reading their QB apps.) Pretty sure most of the schools on your list don’t consider DI, but you can check the CDS of each.
Lastly, you need a plan B if you don’t become a finalist, finalist decisions come out Oct 21. Have that list of schools ready to go. Consider whether you will ED (1 and/or 2) to any school. Your list at that point may or may not include QB schools that you would apply to RD.