<p>hi everyone! quick question, what does it take to be a finalist for the quest bridge program? do any of you have a class rank that is lower than the usual top 10%?</p>
<p>@Fiestachicka<br>
2014 finalist profile: <a href=“http://www.questbridge.org/news-and-media/press-releases/1568-questbridge-selects-finalists-for-the-2014-national-college-match”>http://www.questbridge.org/news-and-media/press-releases/1568-questbridge-selects-finalists-for-the-2014-national-college-match</a>
2013 finalist profile: <a href=“http://www.questbridge.org/for-students/ncm-applicant-profile”>http://www.questbridge.org/for-students/ncm-applicant-profile</a>
This year 11% of finalist were not in the top 10% of their class.</p>
<p>@jinsungjun congratulations on your acceptance to Northwestern University! I can personally attest that this is an OFFER for admission. They did not match you to the QB Scholarship however they are accepting you and will offer with a generous financial aid package. As their letter to you states</p>
<p>“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>How do I know? My son had the exact same letter as you last year and he is currently attending NU.
His decision was to let the offer roll to RD as he wanted to see if the other 4 ranked schools would come through with an offer and then he could weigh the FinAid offers. He did have one come through as being waitlisted (which has its own personal hell).</p>
<p>What do you do? First, regardless of any decision keep up your current academic success for the remainder of the school year as the letter is suggesting. Second, is this your first choice? If so, do your homework and utilize all the EFC and COA calculators to gauge your finaid package. If you are in state also consider that you would receive Illinois State MAP grant as well as the federal Pell Grant. NU is very generous, as I am sure most schools are. You really want to calculate your out of pocket costs (travel to/from school from home - cost of extras - dining etc Evanston isn’t cheap).</p>
<p>I can tell you that NU is a great school. Their welcome for freshman is phenominal (can you say Six Flags shut down only for NU students). There is always something to do. The food is fantastic - according to my son. Even though this was not his first choice (only for the reason that he wanted to go out of state) he describes himself as “I am happy”. Music to a mothers ears.</p>
<p>Good luck with the rest of your searching.</p>
<p>Dear (blank),</p>
<p>We were sorry to learn that you were not matched with another partner school for the QuestBridge Scholarship. We are writing to you today, however, to invite you to continue your Early Action application to the University of Notre Dame.</p>
<p>Although we typically move all non-matched QuestBridge finalists to Regular Action and mail decision letters in early April, we have completed our evaluation of your application and are prepared to send an Early Action decision letter to you within the next few weeks.</p>
<p>If you are interested in receiving an Early Action decision from Notre Dame, simply respond to this email by Sunday, December 7. Please include your full name in your email response and indicate that you would like an Early Action decision letter.</p>
<p>I hope to hear from you soon!</p>
<p>Sincerely,</p>
<p>LeShane Saddler
QuestBridge Coordinator</p>
<p>University of Notre Dame
Office of Undergraduate Admissions
220 Main Building
Notre Dame, IN 46556</p>
<p>Does this letter mean what I think it means - I’ll ask you out if I know you’ll say yes? Presumably ND wouldn’t move the application to EA unless they were going to admit? The student’s test scores/GPA/etc. are in the top quartile for ND, so I am assuming the evaluation wouldn’t be a flat denial and a deferral to RD wouldn’t necessitate the email. Am I interpreting this correctly? Is there any advantage to not moving to EA since it is non-binding at ND?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>There seem to be an advantage as the tone of the letter is encouraging. With a non-binding offer, there is no downside in terms of regular decision schools. The only downside might be that it precludes to apply ED at a different school. </p>
<p>Thanks. That’s what I thought. He can’t really apply ED to anyone, as a binding commitment without seeing the FA package isn’t feasible for us. </p>
<p>^^ If there is a clear first choice, one can apply ED and should not “fear” the financial component. A few years ago, the Common Application language took most of the bite out of the ED binding nature. As it stands, the applicant has the right to refuse the offer of ED admission if he deems the financial aid package insufficient. This should cover most people with simple finances. In so many words, there is a window to refuse the offer and move on to a different school, What is NOT available is the ability of discussing the package and stretching it until RD decisions come in. </p>
<p>Very few people --if any-- have ever reported issues with securing a release or declining the ED offer. OTOH, there have been accounts of people playing games with an ED admission and still applying elsewhere. </p>
<p>Fair enough. Fortunately, I think ND is the only school he would be interested in applying EA or ED. Location is important. ND, Oberlin, UChicago and NW are the closest QB schools - and the only ones we’ve visited other than Amherst. Since we have not had any communication from NW - one of his six ranked schools - I am cautiously optimistic that he might get one of the aforementioned letters. If so, we might have to make the trip west from Toledo again in January.</p>
<p>For those you who were matched, do you have any advice because I am applying to 9 Questbridge Partner School regular decision? I still need to turn in my common application and supplements and have my SAT scores sent. If you are wondering I’m applying to: Stanford, Columbia, USC, Yale, Princeton, Northwestern, UChicago, UPenn, and MIT.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for your advice and enlightenment, @eow2012!
So is there actually nothing else I need to submit to NU? (1st semester grades or anything?) I’m still kind of in disbelief over it since it seems too good to be true. I’m, similar to your son, planning to wait out the admission offer through RD and see what other opportunities may arise.
Also, would it be alright if I messaged you with questions about fin. aid and stuff? I’m not too learned in this process, and nor are my parents. 
Thank you so much!</p>
<p>UCLA bound…do you have some safety schools as well as the QB schools?</p>
<p>@GA2012MOM Yeah, I’m also applying to four UCs (not really safeties) and four CSU that are fairly easy to get in to. Thankfully, all of the apps were freeee!</p>
<p>@Jinsungjun refer to the specific NU application details on the partner page. You will need to be sure to file FAFSA and submit current grades as well as mid year report etc. I would recommend calling Antonia Garcia if you are unsure of procedures. I will double check and make sure what we did last year. Please feel free to message me. I know how daunting the whole process can be.</p>
<p>Oh, good UCLA…I was thinking that was your whole list! I grew up in OC and schools were not crazy competitive like they are now!</p>
<p>I did not get matched but a day or so after the match decisions came out I received letters from a couple of the schools I ranked, which was a nice feeling. One offered me an opportunity to apply ED and the other said they were rolling my application over to RD and asked that I forward my mid-year grades.</p>
<p>Also, I filled out the RD form on QB and I had already completed the Common Application requirements before the match decisions even came out so all I had to do was submit. I pray that I get accepted this time around. I read a few posts from people who did not get matched BUT who still got accepted to a school they ranked, so that was very encouraging.</p>
<p>A heartfelt congratulations to everyone that got matched! If you did not get matched, hang in there! Go ahead and do the RD with QB before the deadline, who knows, something amazing might come out of it.</p>
<p>Good luck to everyone!</p>
<p>Would anyone be willing to read by Questbridge essay which I will probably use as my common app essay (prompt 1)? Any help is greatly appreciated. Just message me!</p>
<p>Hey guys, I’m a student from Hawaii that was matched to Williams through Questbridge. However, Williams themselves have yet to contact me via phone or email; all forms of contact have been through the Questbridge organization. Should I be worried at all or am I overreacting? </p>
<p>As long as your match status has been posted on QB website, why worry at all? I think they will contact you eventually.</p>
<p>TOTAL: 501
Princeton- 30
Rice- 22
Pomona- 13
Haverford- 18
Colorado- 10
Emory- 8
Bowdoin- 8
University of Chicago- 57
UVA- 9
Yale- 40
Vassar- 9
Penn- 45
Washington and Lee- 12
Columbia- 27
Tufts- 19
Trinity- 5
Wesleyan- 16
Williams- 12
Swarthmore- 6
USC- 5
Vanderbilt- 15
Wellesley- 6
Grinnell- 6
Carleton- 7
Notre Dame- 19
Oberlin- 3
Brown- 1
Davidson- 10
Northwestern: 17
MIT- 4
Dartmouth- 3
Amherst- 4
Caltech- 2
Scripps- 2
Stanford- 31</p>
<p>Getting emails from QuestBridge like: “Oh, oh!..oh. Right.” :(</p>