<p>@Sugoi15, I guess you can’t post links. Just search for 2014-2015 Questbridge Family (College Prep and College Match). It should be easy to find. There’s also a Questbridge 2014- 2015 senior support group. </p>
<p>@koolflower3, you are a total inspiration!!! whatever you do you will be a shining light in your community and the larger world. I (and I’m sure many others) admire you :). So never mind about that ‘finalist’ label. </p>
<p>FINALIST!
Constantly refreshing the QB page was NOT fun. OTL
Stats:
Highest SAT - 2210; Reading: 690, Math: 750, Writing: 730
Highest ACT - 33; English: 34, Math: 34, Reading:32, Science: 34, Essay: 9
SAT II - Math IIC: 800; US History: 650; Biology (M): 730
GPA - 3.8 (unweighted), 4.3 (weighted)
Rank - Top 10%
Income - 28K
AP - European History: 3, Lang: 5, US History: 3, Calc AB: 5, Biology: 4
+AP Scholar w/ Distinction
Pretty good essays and recommendations.
Marching Band/Winter Drumline - Pit Captain for two years
Founded two clubs, member of two others, Judge/Photographer of a Literary Magazine</p>
<p>Decision: Finalist</p>
<p>•ACT: 32 Composite</p>
<p>•SAT II: Lit 660, US History 690</p>
<p>•Unweighted GPA 4.8, weighted 5.4</p>
<p>•AP Scores: human geo 4, world history 4, psych 5, apush 4, lang 3</p>
<p>•Senior Year Course Load: AP Calculus BC, AP Lit, AP Govt, Senior Leaders, AP Bio, AP Econ</p>
<p>•Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Four semster honor roll, ap scholar with distinction</p>
<p>•Extracurricular Activities (leadership positions in parenthesis): Theater, Praise Team, Volunteer at church, Principals advisory, Peer Helpers, PALS Tutors, NHS</p>
<p>•Volunteer/Community Service: Church</p>
<p>•Essays (rating 1-10, details):
My short answers were not really thought out. I just answered them without any depth. Rate: 5
My biography was very specific to my story. I talked about my culture, and how my parent immigrated here. I explained how my culture has impacted me. Rate: 6.5?
This last essay was better. I talked about how my experience with private schools showed me why diversity was really important. It was really just my thoughts. Rate: 7</p>
<p>•Recommendations (rating 1-10, details): hoping a 10
I opted out of seeing my recommendations, and my teachers didn’t show me them either. These two teachers were my favorite out of high school though, so I think they had nice things to say.
Addition: I had one physics and one English teacher write them. One was from my junior year and the other from my sophomore year.</p>
<p>•Counselor rec: 10, This recommendation, I got to read. It was outstanding, and really highlighted me as a person. </p>
<p>•State (if domestic applicant): Illinois</p>
<p>•School Type: Public school (2,000+)</p>
<p>•Ethnicity: Asian (Indian)</p>
<p>•Gender: Female</p>
<p>•Income Bracket: <60,000</p>
<p>•Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): minority female, immigrant parents</p>
<p>•Strengths: Recommendations, scores, gpa</p>
<p>•Weaknesses: Essays, I wish I would have worked more on them.</p>
<p>•Why you think you were accepted: Honestly, I don’t know. Please note that any type of application like this and college apps does not guarantee acceptance because you have x, x, and x. Many of applicants would be qualified, but the organization only has so many spots. I think it really comes down to making the applications viewers see you as a person.</p>
<p>Colleges ranked: Uchicago, northwestern, Yale, upenn, notre dame, Columbia, Stanford, Princeton</p>
<p>General Comments: Again, acceptance to something like this isn’t something that has a guaranteed formula. My advise to future applicants would be to really highlight yourself. Let them know you as a person, and show them what you would bring to the college and to QB.</p>
<p>Congrats all finalists! And don’t be disheartened those who didn’t become finalists, simply take another path!</p>
<p>Decision: Finalist!</p>
<p>ACT: 32 Composite
GPA: 3.98
Senior Year Course Load:
Physics I and II for Scientists and Engineers (Calc)
Calculus II, Differential Equations, and Multivariable Calculus
General Chemistry I and II
Macroeconomics
English 12
Drafting I</p>
<p>(No APs offered) </p>
<p>Rank: 4/205 Unweighted
ECS: Mentoring elementary (11, 12), Hospital (12), Leo (10,11,12), SADD (10,11,12), Tutoring (10,11,12), Robotics (12), STEM club (12) … couldnt participate in things during first two years of high school due to family problems… third year was difficult because I worked so much.
Income: 32 k a year, but mother pays hospital and medical bills that add up to at least 7,000
Work Experience: average: 30 hours per week all year (lots during school year)
Teacher Recs: amazing! </p>
<p>Extenuating Circumstances: Extreme. Abusive, heroin-addicted parents, foster care, homeless dropout brother, alcoholic abusive stepfather, dad passed away from drug usage last year during exams, severely ill mother… i could go on forever. Had to work extreme hours to be able to pay for college courses at the local college because my school is disadvantaged and rural, so it has no AP courses… also helped pay for food, bills, etc… my own car, insurance, gas, etc. </p>
<p>Good luck to all of you!</p>
<p>Finalist
SAT: 2200 (Oct), 2050 (Jan)
SAT II: 800 Bio, 770 Math
GPA: 4.00 UW 4.25 W
Senior Year Course Load:
Calculus BC AP
British Literature
AP Chemistry
Physics Honors
AP Government
Macroeconomics
Teaching Assistant (got stuck with this class because all other classes at school were full)
Rank: school doesn’t rank</p>
<p>EC: Played soccer for 10 years, AYSO Youth Referee, local religious youth group, team leader of local tree care group
Clubs: President of one club, secretary/ treasurer of another, CSF, NHS (lots of volunteering)
Income: 20k a year, possibly less now
Extenuating Circumstances: split from parents for 3 years, immigrated to US at age 5, mother has several medical conditions, worked since sophomore year after school for dad’s “company” to help out family
Teacher Recs: good, i guess Idk
Hooks: URM, low income (duh)</p>
<p>Good luck to everyone!</p>
<p>It’s going to be a long November.</p>
<p>Decision: Finalist
Yay my first stat post on CC :P</p>
<p>Objective: •SAT I (breakdown): 2,110 CR 660 Math 720 WR 730</p>
<p>•ACT: Never took one</p>
<p>•SAT II: “Not yet available”</p>
<p>•Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): School doesnt calculate UW GPA or rank, but Weighted GPA is 4.0</p>
<p>•AP (place score in parenthesis): AP Computer Science A (5) BC Calc (5) AP World (4) AP US (4) AP Chem (4) AP Enviro (4) </p>
<p>•Senior Year Course Load: Multivariable calc/Linear Alg, AP Micro/macroecon, AP Physics C, AP Biology, AP Govt, Spanish, English 12</p>
<p>Subjective:
•Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Science olympiad (president), robotics (vice president), CS honor society (vice president), math team</p>
<p>•Job/Work Experience: internship (see below)</p>
<p>•Volunteer/Community service: volunteered for LGBT office, </p>
<p>•Summer Activities: somehow got a really amazing prestigious biomedical internship and got into MIT online sci/tech/engineering community</p>
<p>•Essays (rating 1-10, details): /: I slept 20 hours that week to polish 'em…8?</p>
<p>•Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
•Teacher Rec #1: Not sure</p>
<p>•Teacher Rec #2: Good</p>
<p>•Counselor Rec: Good?</p>
<p>Other
•State (if domestic applicant): East coast</p>
<p>•School Type: public, class size is 384</p>
<p>•Ethnicity: Korean</p>
<p>•Gender: F</p>
<p>•Income Bracket:<10k</p>
<p>•Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): first generation</p>
<p>Reflection
•Strengths: Not sure</p>
<p>•Weaknesses: GPA is bad, SAT is low, writing is weak</p>
<p>•Why you think you were selected/rejected: My income is low?</p>
<p>Colleges ranked: Upenn (dropped), Yale, Columbia, Caltech, Princeton</p>
<p>General Comments: Really super happy and grateful for QuestBridge!!!</p>
<p>Just less than a month you all! I love QuestBridge and hate them at the same time! I thought I wouldn’t survive this week lol. To those of you who had 7 or 8 schools ranked, I don’t know how you did it! :)</p>
<p>Yeah I ranked 7, it was difficult especially since I don’t have a computer and had to do everything at the library…it was so stressful!! </p>
<p>It was tough in the end I didn’t get to finish UChicago but I’ll take it as a sign since I’m not a fan of the liberal arts feel. Ended up recycling some essays and probably could’ve done a little better but between work and school I was dead.
- Penn 2. Columbia 3. Yale 4. Princeton 5. Stanford 6. Vanderbilt 7. UChicago 8. Brown</p>
<p>Despite the fact that I found this post very late, I just wanted to say that I’m also a Finalist ! </p>
<p>If you are a QB Finalist that ranked Princeton, if they are really interested, will they set up an interview? </p>
<p>I only ask this because a few Non-QB, early decision students have had or made appointments to interview. </p>
<p>I’ve been trying to find other QB Finalists that got matched to schools that interview to ask this question, but so far I have not had any luck.</p>
<p>HappyCamper, I am a QB Finalist and only ranked Columbia. I received an invitation for an interview about a week after the Nov. 1 deadline; it was via Skype with a current student, since I live in Florida and definitely NOWHERE near any Columbia alumni!</p>
<p>I am also wondering if that is a good sign or rather just a stroke of luck that I was selected for an interview!</p>
<p>Anybody have any knowledge of what it means, if anything at all?</p>
<p>Hi Bananami,</p>
<p>That sure sounds like a great sign to me!!! I hope the interview went well. 
</p>
<p>When I saw so many other students getting interviews, I wondered if QB finalists would have one also. Wow! Good luck! 
</p>
<p>Have you heard anything since? </p>
<p>I have received phone calls from Dartmouth and Cornell but I did not rank them. LOL! I’m not too sure how they got my information. </p>
<p>Thanks!! I think it went well. We bonded over our mutual love of Harry Potter. </p>
<p>However, I haven’t heard anything since then! I have, though, received some information from Princeton and Penn, and I didn’t rank them either.</p>
<p>I hope this all leads to good news!! Lol I don’t think December 1st can come soon enough!</p>
<p>Bananami, Harry Potter! That’s too funny! Way to go, I loved HP!</p>
<p>Did you mention that you only ranked 1. I ranked 5. Princeton, Vanderbilt, Stanford, Yale and Rice.</p>
<p>Waiting for December 1st is going to make my hair fall out. It’s driving me NUTS!!! </p>
<p>I have re-read my essays 1000 times, wondering if I missed anything or if I should have said something different.</p>
<p>I can’t wait for this to be over!!! The schools I ranked have application status pages and keep going to them just to see if I can see ANY hint or clue as to what they’ve decided. LOL!!! But nothing! </p>
<p>Me too! I was obsessively pouring over my essays leading up to the deadline.</p>
<p>Good luck in the match process!! It’s really exciting but also very scary at the same time!</p>
<p>I hear you all loud and clear on the rereading essays. Probably like a daily occurrence for me. I am so nervous!!</p>
<p>Does anyone know if there are any posts of finalist the did NOT get matched to any of their ranked colleges BUT still got admitted by one of those same colleges during regular decision? </p>
<p>If so, can you please post a link for me. I’m trying to hope for the best but plan for the worst. ;-)</p>
<p>Thanks and have a good weekend!</p>