NEW! College Prep Scholarship - 2010

2blue
Fri, 20 Aug 2010 11:55:14 +0000

adored, I’m not sure if you’re a junior or a senior this year.

The College Prep program is for juniors. There are a variety of awards, explained here on the QB website: [QuestBridge College Prep Scholarship - Overview](http://www.questbridge.org/cps/info.php) Students apply in the spring of their junior year. Last spring the deadline was March 29th and students were notified of their results on April 22nd. The most common award in the College Prep program is an invitation to attend one of the two College Admission Conferences held by QB. These conferences are very interesting. However, I know students aren’t always able to attend. There is a wealth of information on the QB website (and here on CC) so don’t feel like you are at a disadvantage if you can’t go.

The College Match program is for seniors. The deadline for this year’s College Match is September 30th. I agree that the process can be confusing when you’re just learning about it. Something that will help you is to clarify the difference between being a finalist and actually receiving a College Match scholarship. You submit your application, rec letters, transcript, etc. to QuestBridge by the Sept. 30 deadline. QB then picks out students to participate in its program. These selected students are finalists. Students are notified by October 22nd if they are a finalist or not.

Now we move to the second phase of the College Match process. First, you have to have been picked by QB as a finalist. Then if selected as a finalist, you can be considered for a College Match scholarship. You let QB know what schools you want to be considered by, and which order you prefer them. QB forwards your app materials to those schools. The schools decide which students they want to offer College Match scholarships to. Should more than one school want a student, the student is offered the Match to the school they ranked the highest in their order of preference.

Most students do not get matched. An important thing to remember is that you always can move on to participate in the school’s Regular Decision process.

This is a very brief overview of the process. A flowchart with the deadlines is found here: [QuestBridge National College Match - Flowchart](http://www.questbridge.org/students/flowchart.html)
Seeing it laid out visually can be helpful. Keep reading the website. I’ve given the condensed version of the program. There are other considerations to keep in mind. For example some schools want the Common App and supplement submitted in addition to the QB application. Also, some students choose to apply to be a QB finalist and get the fee waivers, but opt not to be a part of the Match program. So, keep reading the website. There is a ton of information there. Then come back with questions if you don’t understand something.

Good luck!