QuestBridge National College Match 2014-2015

Paying for College Access Programs (Questbridge, Posse)
341

<p>Hey guys, I just got an e-mail from Northwestern about acceptance. I was wondering if you guys could just explain more about the regular decision portion: would I need to send them anything else and am I actually admitted?
Thanks for your help! :)</p>

<p>Your QuestBridge application, academic credentials and letters of recommendation demonstrate your potential to make an impact at Northwestern University. We have no doubt you will thrive in our classrooms and within our student organizations. While we were not able to admit you through the QuestBridge match program, I am writing today to offer you admission to Northwestern University through either our Early Decision or Regular Decision program. Our offer assumes you will maintain your current academic success for the remainder of your senior year.</p>

<p>If you would like to receive your official letter of acceptance at the end of March, 2015, through Regular Decision, there is nothing you need to do. However, if you have decided that Northwestern University is where you would like to be next year, I am offering you the chance to be considered an Early Decision candidate and receive your official acceptance to Northwestern by mid-December. Keep in mind, Early Decision at Northwestern is a binding program and you must withdraw all other university applications and initiate no new applications once admitted.</p>

<p>Like all students who apply to Northwestern, part of your decision where to attend college is financial. We have a generous financial aid program for lower and middle income students. Regardless of whether you choose to commit to Northwestern in Early Decision or consider us later in Regular Decision, we will award you a need-based financial aid package (a combination of scholarship, grant, loan, and part-time work) that covers 100% of your demonstrated family need. Close to one-third of the students in the Class of 2018 at Northwestern are from families who earn $60,000 or less.</p>

<p>To switch your application to Early Decision, please complete the following steps by Monday, December 8, 2014.</p>

<ul>
<li><p>You will need to complete an Early Decision Agreement form. It must be signed by you, a parent or guardian, and your high school counselor and returned to the Office of Undergraduate Admission by fax at.</p></li>
<li><p>E-mail or call Antonia Garcia and let her know that you will be applying Early Decision (). You may request your financial aid award at this time to help with your decision.</p></li>
</ul>

<p>Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or would like to discuss your options.</p>

<p>Congratulations on all of your outstanding achievements in high school. I hope that you will accept my offer of admission to Northwestern University and join our diverse and close-knit community.</p>

342

<p>That’s a likely letter :). Nice one @Jingsungjun! There have been a few of these showing up today. You don’t have to submit anything else to receive your RD acceptance but you won’t get your FA package until March/April either. But obviously you shouldn’t do ED unless NU is your clear top choice college. Either way this is great news and you must feel really happy today! Congrats :)</p>

343

<p>Thank you so much, @LyricalLacuna‌! Today’s been pretty crazy overall. Sorry but I have one more question, would I add northwestern onto my questbridge regular decision form or just leave it off?</p>

344

<p>@Jinsungjun, you don’t need to forward your QB app to NU because they already have it from the match round! I think they said that in your likely letter as well…GL with the rest of your RD schools!</p>

345

<p>Hey guys! I’m new to this but I was also not matched. However, I ranked Columbia and then received an email giving me the option to have my application be considered for early decision. Did any one else get this who ranked columbia? Congrats btw to those who did get matched :slight_smile: </p>

346

<p>@yts731‌ I got that email, and I didn’t rank Columbia. Does anyone know what this is? Could it be a likely letter (hoping against hope but it is probably not)</p>

347

<p>@emenya‌ Yeah actually that happened to me too with a few schools that I didnt rank…I believe it was rice and amherst.</p>

348

<p>@emenya‌
A friend of mine who didn’t match got the same email from Columbia as well as other QB partners. These emails are invitations to apply from partners you may not have considered as well as some you ranked. I don’t believe they are likely letters, especially if you didn’t rank them because they don’t have all of your info. </p>

349

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<p>Nope, that is NOT a likely letter. It is a bona fide offer of admission. The recipient has the choice to be admitted in the ED or RD round. Likely letters are different and are not firm offers of admissions. </p>

<p>In the same vein, invitations to proceed to the next rounds are not likely letters. </p>

<p>LyricalLacuna, aren’t you a HS student who is just starting to understand the terminology of admissions and finding about how QB works just as your peers in this class? </p>

350

<p>i got an email from amherst, columbia, and a few others inviting me to forward my questbridge app to early or to apply regular decision. Amherst’s said this: “Although you did not meet the criteria for the College Match, Amherst College still values you as an applicant and we would like to encourage you to consider applying Early or Regular Decision.” It obviously isn’t a likely letter, but how much weight do these invitations carry? do they give any indication of your chances of getting in? I also didn’t rank colleges so I’m a little confused</p>

351

<p>@xiggi, I have siblings who have done Questbridge and one was matched, and my brother was a Quest liaison and worked as a Quest intern - in the Questbridge office. That doesn’t make me an expert but I have been paying attention for quite awhile. But besides that, we have very active facebook groups which we’ve all been a part of since CPS last winter and the Questies from the last two years mentor the groups actively so we discuss this stuff on social media all the time, pretty much daily. We’ve been hearing about likelies since last year and loads of people have been posting sceenshots of theirs. We call them likelies, you don’t. This exact letter was posted in the group as an example of a likely. Why do you feel the need the correct people all the time? Is it important to correct Nostalgic on tiny minute points when he is trying to help applicants in future years? Are you or have you ever been involved with Questbridge? Respectfully, you do seem to need to argue points for no reason. </p>

352

<p>@xiggi, actually I just looked at the page re: likely letters and this is why it is a likely letter NOT an official acceptance. They are offering him the <em>chance</em> to receive an offer of admission as per the text: “If you would like to receive your official letter of acceptance at the end of March, 2015”…OR “I am offering you the chance to be considered an Early Decision candidate and receive your official acceptance to Northwestern by mid-December”. The letter promises a FUTURE acceptance. A likely is as close as they can come to saying you are in when they cannot yet extend the official offer, but they make it very clear that the student will be accepted. That’s the whole point of a likely letter. </p>

<p>And no I am not “a HS student who is just starting to understand the terminology of admissions and finding about how QB works”. I am done with the college admissions process, having received an acceptance this week, after a lot of years of hard work, and research too. I pretty much doubt there is any senior who is “just starting to understand the terminology of admissions” since, umm, the last apps are due in less than a month. Not everybody does their college research on college confidential. And Questbridge conferences took place last June and applications were due on September 26th so I would be a little late to be figuring it out now. </p>

353

<p>LyricalLacuna, I only correct people when there are reasons to correct erroneous statements. It does not matter how pure the intents might be, posting incorrect or misleading information does not help anybody. This is especially true when people pretend to be talking with a degree of authority. I have expressed that view to Nostalgicwisdom about a number of his statements regarding Pomona and Questbridge. </p>

<p>In this case, just as in your previous statements about the financial packages, your information about “likelies” is simply incorrect. And it does not matter what people in a FB group are calling them. </p>

<p>It is totally acceptable for a HS student to not know much about the process, but you should refrain to pass that lacking knowledge as more than it is. It is helpful to be honest about the source of your information and knowledge, and recognize that the people who do correct you have a lengthy “involvement” with the organization. </p>

354

<p>@xiggi, what’s your “involvement” with Questbridge?</p>

355

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<p>You are incorrect. And again, while it is expected that you, as a high school student, do not fully understand the terminology, you should stop pretending you do. This is the salient part of the letter:</p>

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</p>

<p>Those terms are standard in offers of admission. As you might learn in the future. </p>

356

<p><a href=“Likely Letters | Ivy Coach”>http://theivycoach.com/the-ivy-coach-blog/tag/likely-letters/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

357

<p>I was matched to Stanford, but because the offer is non binding, I receieved the same email you did from Columbia. It is simply asking you to consider applying to Columbia via regular decision. It specifically mentions that your QuestBridge application will not be evaluated, so, in other words, it is just another admissions email, no different than receiving an email from Harvard or Duke asking you to apply.</p>

358

<p>^^ There seem to be a need for further clarifications. The above post is correct but could be misunderstood in terms of the Stanford admission letter.</p>

<p>I would highly suggest everyone who receives a letter or email to clarify the nature of the offer or invitation with the Questbrige staff or directly with the sender. What you should NOT do is having the blind following the one-eyed. Debating the recent news in a FB group might be entertaining but equally misleading. </p>

<p>Schools take great care in sending letters with precise wording. An invitation to reapply is different from a deferred **offer ** in a subsequent round. </p>

<p>Further, an offer by the school is binding as far as the school when they do OFFER admission. Stanford is non-binding as far as the student goes, but the offer is an offer. Inasmuch as it is subject to the standard requirements of maintaining grades and behavior, it means that the student WILL be admitted in April. Such letter is neither a likely nor an invitation to reapply.</p>

<p>However, since Stanford is SCEA, students can apply to other schools and make a final decision in April. </p>

<p>Again, asking for confirmation is an easy step, and the staff at the college will be more happy to provide the correct information. </p>

359

<p>As a very excited and grateful MIT match recipient this year, I can confirm the MIT rumor is false. Additionally, in a phone call from Questbridge letting me know about the match, I was told that MIT matched 4 students this year. </p>

<p>Congrats to everyone who was matched and good luck in regular decision for those who weren’t!</p>

360

<p>Does anybody have any information on how many were matched to Amherst?</p>