or did it? Mid 80s superscore SSAT is pretty low for these elite schools.
Are the students getting into 8 Ivies doing it through Questbridge?
Can someone explain what Questbridge is exactly?
@preppedparent (or anyone)
Others please add. What I know is that Questbridge is a separate route for college admission, other than thru Common App. Students whose families I believe make under $70,000 a year (or some other bar) can apply earlier than even ED1. They identify schools they want to attend and can apply up to 3 colleges. It’s a match program. Questbridge kids also find out earlier than ED1 candidates. Many elite colleges want low income students and take kids from Questbridge route.
@prepparent average SSAT’s where she applied: 64, 78, 85, 91 - the rest I’m not sure at this moment. But yes, I believe a mid 80’s score fits in with those without a problem. That is average, not minimum.
(Not everyone is obsessed with HADES or GLADCHEMMS)
Perhaps some, but not all 8 - Cornell and Harvard do not participate in Questbridge.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaay beyond the scope of this thread. But some info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QuestBridge
https://www.questbridge.org/
And from our own site:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/questbridge-programs/
Further questions on this topic, if any, should be asked in a new thread.
Quest bridge is designed to funnel high achieving low income students into selective colleges, helping them with the stages of the process. It is highly selective to be accepted as a Questbridge student and not all those accepted wind up getting matched to a college. You can read more about it here: https://www.questbridge.org
@monica20 Your friend sounds very qualified. But remember there is always luck involved too. Although, in her case, since brother attends Exeter, the AO is likely evaluating a bit more personally, since the family is known. So my question then, is: Is the brother a good student at Exeter that contributes to the community? Are the parents supportive and hands off, (ie, not helicopter rotoring around school?) If he is a good student, and parents are normal, then I’d think she’d be high on the WL and/or the WL is a “soft rejection”.
@queenmother I absolutely think FA is a huge factor in your results, as it is for any candidate requesting FA. MANY of the applicants needing significant FA got mostly rejections.
@sunnyschool How do you know that MANY of the applicants needing significant FA got mostly rejections unless you’re an ADCOM yourself. I’m not an ADCOM but I would bet that MANY FP applicants also got mostly rejections too.
@makp715 Sorry if this is an ignorant question but I thought your family was international and not American? Is your daughter from indigenous peoples of another country?
@preppedparent Mostly from watching results here and also from what an ex-BS-AO told me.
Think about it…I’m sure MANY got rejected, because many do indeed get rejected, including those needing FA.
Reading this thread backwards…
Schools will admit those with lower than average SSAT scores, but schools probably have a target average they want to maintain.
I think schools want some with lower scores, kids that will likely be okay with being in the bottom half of the class. Often they are athletes that will likely benefit from BS reputation and education to get recruited by colleges.
But if a student is used to being a top student academically, in perhaps a less competitive middle or HS, but they tout winning this and that, it may not benefit them to attract that student, whose SSAT at 25%ish may indicate that they are not as strong academically as students in [elite BS] top half. They’d probably rather have a student-athlete, who brings something to the varsity team, and understands that they are going to be on the lower end academically but are very lucky to get into [elite BS].
If they accept all 90+ SSAT, then many of those kids will not be happy when they find themselves in the bottom 25% of their class, or even bottom half.
This is only representative of one school, but look at where school’s travel to reach out to students. If you look at this schedule from SPS, you’ll see them meeting at various A Better Chance fairs across the country as well as at other programs like Wight Foundation and NJ Seeds, both in NJ. They are connecting with low income students of color through various programs, students who have mentoring programs so are unlikely to come to CC looking for information. They are getting it from programs they are a part of. These programs are also geared towards low income students so being an FA URM really isn’t a disadvantage although being a URM FA student who is middle class or not connected to these programs might put you at a relative disadvantage because you’re not in the funnel.
https://www.sps.edu/page/admission/on-the-road
Here’s Groton - similar - some different programs - Inspiring Young Minds, NJ Seed again, KIPP in NC, YES Foundation in Detroit.
@doschicos we live in Canada. DD is a dual citizen. I am American and DH is Canadian. DH and DD are Native American.
That’s 7-8 events out of 53, if I counted correctly? I’m glad they are doing that outreach, don’t get me wrong… but it is a small fraction of their events.
AND? 7 events plus other outlets provides for plenty of opportunites to garner applications from URMs. Of course they are promoting the school to non-URMs as well.
@doschicos - I have a feeling many of those URM that need significant FA are coming through programs like that. Agree with what you are saying.
Wow SPS has a lot of recruiting events, more than most schools. I don’t know how you are counting @doschicos - but for NJ I’d count all the Newark events as targeting URM.
These relationships have been built up over years. They are symbiotic. These applicants are already prescreened and prepared through tutoring programs. Additionally, to my knowledge, the programs provide ongoing outreach to these students throughout their high school and college years, at least at a program or two I am more familiar with through knowing some now young adults who came through the process.
ABC, for example, is so old that it was feeding kids to my boarding school 40 years ago.
BTW, a lot of these programs are urban based.
One difference with Questbridge which is only for colleges is that it draws from around the country - urban and rural and is based purely on SES.
@sunnyschool I didn’t bother counting. Calimex through the 7 number out there.
Agree, and they are also used to prepare URM athletes for BS.
@doschicos, I am not sure if there is zero benefit or any benefit of being an URM. I am simply saying that some of the URM’s on this board are relaying our experience that our kids did not appear to see any benefit or hook of being an URM. Yet, everyone who is not an URM keeps insisting that there is some benefit. Maybe we expected too much. Who knows? I am warning other URM parents to not expect to see some benefit. If their kid benefits great. If not, nothing lost. Just trying to set expectations because I wish someone had told me to not to expect to see any advantage.
After the smoke cleared last year, my son and I talked to the admission rep of his first choice school where he was rejected. We asked what he could have done to strengthen his application(he was thinking about reapplying) she told us everything was solid but they just could not fund him. They knew he would not be able to attend without the funding so he was rejected. So, I have to assume the recommendations were fine. He loves the school he is attending and ultimately chose to not reapply.