[Source:Seeley Photography]
For students with an annual household income of less than $65,000 dollars for a family of four, they are eligible to apply to Questbridge for the opportunity to earn a four-year scholarship to one of forty Questbridge college partners. Some of the colleges partners include Yale, Princeton, University of Southern California or USC, and Stanford, which are well-known, prestigious colleges in the United States of America.
In order to qualify as a potential applicant, the student must be a U.S. citizen or a permanent resident. Some academic criteria for applicants are SAT or PSAT scores greater than 1310 or ACT composite score greater than 28. Moreover, he or she must be within the top five to ten percent in rank of the student’s graduating class with primarily A’s in challenging courses like Honors, AP, and IB. It is also recommended for students to present AP, IB, or SAT Subject Test scores when submitting their applications.
Besides financial and academic qualifications, the students are judged based on the number of people in their household, students in college, unemployments in family, and ownership of houses or businesses. There’s also a consideration of extracurricular activities, extenuating circumstances where students must work, and parent’s level of education: if the student is a first generation college student, he or she is more likely to be admitted.
[Source: Questbridge]
The first application in which the National College Match application is due on September 27, 2018. For this, the students must submit 800 and 500 word essays along with their personal information to qualify as a finalist. Also, within two weeks of their application, they must turn in college rankings of their choice. On October 18, applicants are informed whether they had become a finalist or not and if rejected, they should continue with their own early or regular applications.
For those who have are selected as a finalist, they must turn in the required documents of their ranked colleges by November 1st and the result is notified on December 3rd on the Questbridge website. Although some finalists weren’t matched with the colleges they have selected, their application is turned into the regular decision free of charge and therefore, they still have opportunities to commit to their wanted schools.
Questbridge is an amazing chance for low-income, high-achieving students to graduate from their college debt-free. There are numerous qualifications that students must meet, but it’s worth applying to colleges through Questbridge. If selected it will aid financially struggling students to further educate themselves if it seems too difficult due to their monetary scarcity.
The deadline for 2018 is near and for seniors who are thinking of college applications, Questbridge might be the right choice.
Seunghyeon Shim, Grade 12
West Ranch High School
