National College Match - 2009-2010

Paying for College Access Programs (Questbridge, Posse)
3161

<p>I have three questions that I’d like to throw out to the pool. I have found these discussion boards to be the best way to work through some issues outloud:</p>

<p>1.) If a finalist has changed their mind about their first (or other top) choice, is it possible to take that choice off? Obviously, reordering is out of the question at this point, but if someone was willing to give up one school for a shot at others, would it be possible to not submit the extra required information? Or perhaps write the school directly?</p>

<p>2.) For many of the most selective Questbridge schools, won’t the scholarship under the Questbridge program be equivilent to that under normal decision policies? I.E. for schools that guarantee to meet full demonstrated need, won’t they be equivilent?</p>

<p>3.) Considering the selectivity of Questbridge, what level of school does this imply that an Average finalist (obviously, there’s variation here, but generally…) can get into? For example, what school might a Questbridge finalist (inside or outside the Questbridge process) have a 50% chance of getting into, what’s a stretch for the average, and what’s a (90%+) safety?</p>

3162

<p>Hi everyone! New here but I’m a finalist too. I received a college prep scholarship last year too. </p>

<p>@thewrittenword: As far as I understand, the school’s won’t consider you if you don’t have all of the test scores you need now. The last date for testing that they would consider was in October. I don’t know exactly what happens but to me it looked like they wouldn’t consider the application without all of the test scores.</p>

3163

<p>@cinhype Aww. Thanks anyway. :stuck_out_tongue: Do you think I could apply using QB’s regular decision forwarding using that December test date?</p>

3164

<p>Should I not use my biographical essay for my common app essay? it’s sort of already too late now, but I’m just wondering if it’ll screw me over. All this talk about how Qb and colleges have different criteria has me worried…I’m a finalist, but my biographical essay (which I used for my common app too) seems to be something more that QB would like…I’m not sure if other colleges will see it as a pity plea or something…</p>

3165

<p>@tomjonesistheman</p>

<p>A princeton representative came to our school a week ago, and she said that you can send an abstract attached to the common application. I don’t know about the other schools though.</p>

3166

<p>Wait - Post #3162
@Nickleby - Aren’t you at Swarthmore? You posted in 2005 that you decided going to Swarthmore. Did you do QB at all??
Very confusing post??</p>

<p>04-30-2005, 06:00 PM #7<br>
Nickleby
Member
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 472 So, I decided to go to Swarthmore in the end.</p>

<p>The ironic thing is that I applied to 19 schools (got a little overanxious after Yale, and went for schools with merit $$$). I only didn’t get into 4, and three of those were waitlists. Can you guess which one was the flat-out rejection…</p>

<p>Yup, it was Yale. I think that there were three reasons. 1.) My application as of November 1st wasn’t nearly as strong as by January 1st. The essays weren’t as good, and I didn’t have in a resume sheet (I had “fun” trying to get that to work with the online app). 2.) They were nice enough not to prolong my waiting after getting deferred EA with a little chance. 3.)Random chance. We all know how it works in this game by now.</p>

<p>So, I am ok because at least EVERY school that I applied to said that I was on par with their application at Some stage of the game, for Yale, it was deferral, with the others, it was waitlisted.</p>

<p>Now, I have to decide in the next couple of days how hard to get off of the Princeton wait list. I came to like Princeton almost as much as Yale over the past few months, but now I don’t know if the size and character is too Ivy and large (I know, it IS smaller than Yale) considering my shift towards smaller schools and the LACs.</p>

<p>I will still send in the little extra “stuff,” but must decide if it is worth it to say that “if accepted, I WILL attend in the fall.” Any thoughts?</p>

<p>Once again, thanks for all of your help over the past months. It is the students on this board that make up the most desireable part of all of these schools,</p>

<p>Nickleby >"</p>

3167

<p>Nickleby has travelled back in time to apply to college again. ;)</p>

3168

<p>@thewrittenword
Deffinitely. I don’t think they will let you change your QB app but you can still send the scores and they will put them in your file. Did you put in your QB app that you were planning on taking them in December? I think you could. Either way, they will take them.</p>

<p>@natim1
I honestly think it depends on what your best writing was. I didn’t but I really liked one of my other QB essays and used it. I don’t think they will view it as a pity story if you used the space to show that thise helped you to grow and made you a strong person. The one I am sending talks about my cousin passing away in a car accident, so kind of pity, but I used the space to show how I am proactive about safe driving now. If you show that it helped you and will make you a stronger person on their campus I think it is good to send.</p>

<p>Hope that helps!</p>

3169

<p>This may sound like a dumb question but…</p>

<p>If you sent in your ACT scores like 5 MONTHS AGO (four free ones remember?) and they happen to be sent to the colleges that you happen to rank later in QB, the colleges will already have those scores by now right?? Do I have to waste money in sending it again?</p>

3170

<p>@crystal91: I am not even bothering with the whole sending in test scores that I have already sent. Once you send them, they have them and that’s that. There would really be no point in sending the same test scores to the same place twice. It’s not like they tell you to put a message in the sent scores that says that you’re a QB finalist and besides, I’m sure they have some sort of file or something that they keep the scores in and could look up the scores at any time. Or I hope so anyway because I already spent nearly $150 sending in test scores :); applying for college is so expensive even if we use the free QB application!</p>

3171

<p>hey guys. i forgot where i sent my ACT scores 4 months ago…how do i find out? thanks :)</p>

3172

<p>Congrats to everyone!! :)</p>

<p>@pnptruong: I would guess they don’t because rankings are due October 12th and they probably start reviewing applications before then. I’m not sure what order they review applications in though…</p>

<p>The colleges we ranked get our QB apps, so they’re going to end up reading our QB biographical essays anyways, right? Does the essay we choose for our common app personal statement have that much significance? Or are they paying attention mostly to supplements?</p>

3173

<p>@raechelli: the reason I asked was bc apparently Princeton and Stanford don’t look at the QB app. All other schools though (I think) look at the QB</p>

3174

<p>I should have guessed that the college confidential crowd would do background research.</p>

<p>I’m interested in how it applies to someone I know. Givin the pseudo-annonimity of this site, I’ll leave it there.</p>

<p>I am really curious of how those questions would be interpreted by this crowd. Obviously, these are major decisions and it’s important they’re well thought through, even at this point.</p>

3175

<p>hey anyone know if today’s act scores (oct 24) will be seen/considered for 1st round?</p>

3176

<p>Soooooooo…I went to bed very late last night, woke up at ten this morning…AND STILL NO E-MAIL.</p>

<p>I don’t know what’s going on! AAGHDSAKSHKAS:ALKSJAKL. </p>

<p>Has this happened to anyone else? My mom’s saying that MAYBE they send e-mails out by alphabetical order and since my last name starts with a V that I shouldn’t be too worried…but I think she’s just trying to stop me freaking out. </p>

<p>Too late. </p>

<p>Anyway. CONGRATS to all those who are finalists!</p>

3177

<p>@Code H:</p>

<p>If you have a ACT Student account and whatever, you can log in to actstudent.org and look at all of your scores and where you sent them as well as sending the scores to wherever else you need to send them.</p>

<p>@sunflower28:</p>

<p>Did you check your spam folder? If it’s not there, I would totally email QB. I know it’s only the day after you were supposed to get the email but, if you are a finalist, you need to know right away in order to send the extra stuff in on time.</p>

3178

<p>@sunflower did you try e-mailing QB and asking them about it? I mean if they said they would notify applicants on the 23rd and do not have anything posted on their site about e-mails coming late, then I think you should’ve received an e-mail already. You might want to check any other e-mail accounts you have and whether or not it went to junk (you never know!). Good Luck!</p>

<p>@EVERYONE! I’m currently filling out the Columbia online app and I’m at the point where they ask if I will be paying by credit card or using a fee waiver. </p>

<p>Under the directoins for getting a Fee Waiver it says:</p>

<p>“If your family financial circumstances warrant a fee waiver request, select the “Fee Waiver” option and click on the “pay & continue” button below. After submission, you will be instructed to print a payment voucher to mail with a letter or waiver form from an appropriate school official testifying to family financial hardship. Mail the voucher and your waiver request as soon as possible. Your application will not be processed until we receive these items.”</p>

<p>but on the Columbia FAQ it says, </p>

<p>“If you are QuestBridge Finalist, your application fee is waived for Columbia University. QuestBridge will verify names of all finalists directly with Columbia. Non-Finalist students who qualify for a fee waiver may submit that waiver in lieu of the application fee. Fee waivers must be signed by your high school counselor and should meet the guidelines established by the College Board or NACAC. We cannot accept personal requests for fee waivers.”</p>

<p>Should I assume that I don’t have to mail in the Fee Waiver request to Columbia?</p>

<p>Sorry this is so long. I’m just trying to not mess up any part of this app here, haha.</p>

3179

<p>@spiritualwitch: I have checked my spam folder, and I’ve gotten e-mails from Questbridge before so it’s not like I accidentally typed in a wrong e-mail address or something. I think I will e-mail them…I just don’t want to seem to pushy/annoying since it IS only a day after the announcements.</p>

3180

<p>@tomjones When your GC filled out the Secondary Report, they should have uploaded an abstract of your transcript that satisfies Stanford and Princeton.</p>