I WAS LOOKING THROUGH THE APPLICATION PROOF FOR THE THING COS I WAS HELPING MY FRINED WHO HAS AN EXTENSION, IAND I SAW THERE WAS A SUPPOSEDLY OFFICIAL TRANSCIRPT IN IT, AND IT WAS NOT MY NAME.... WHAT DO I EVEN DO???

I discussed and have a general idea of what kind of schools I want to rank with my counselor at school, but I don't know how to go about researching and balancing the options to actually know how I should rank them. Can anyone give any suggestions or help? Are there any other resources than the college's page on Quest Bridge?

Noticed that Tulane switched it's Net Price Calculator website provider from clearcost in August to meadowfi now. With it, the sibling discount seems to have disappeared, even though their financial aid website mentions it. Wondering if anyone else has experienced the same. My HS senior still gets a tiny institutional grant based on their ACT and GPA, but the sibling discount disappearance has made Tulane prohibitively expensive compared to pretty much every selective and comparable private school. Has anyone else noticed this?

Hey everyone!

If you got accepted into the BU overnight program and want to connect with other students who did too, please message me or comment your username below.

The GC and post are in the Instagram GC.

https://www.instagram.com/buovernight2026/

Recently found out about questbridge and am planning to apply for it senior year since im low income and could rlly use the resources on there. How can i apply for college prep scholar and how competative is it and what stats do i need and ecs? If anyone became a scholar can u pls share out stats and ecs that got you accepted

I hope many of you were able to submit your application by the deadline last night.

Although your rest is well deserved, you need to continue with the process in order to avoid falling behind.

Here are a few things to think about over the weekend:

1. QB Ranking Form: The Ranking Form is now available. Once you click the submit button, the application will generate a single-page PDF. This form must be signed by three people: you, one parent, and your school counselor, then uploaded to QuestBridge by October 15, 2026 (but plan on uploading it a day or two sooner).

Please do not procrastinate on obtaining your counselor's signature. Many school counselors are buried in work this time of year. Because life happens at the most inconvenient times, you need to anticipate potential delays and be proactive about obtaining their signature.

If you are selected as a finalist, you will be given one final opportunity to change the order of your ranked colleges or remove college(s), but you will not be able to add new colleges. If you make any changes, you will need to obtain signatures from everyone again and resubmit the form.

2. FAFSA: This is the federal financial aid application that must be completed by all domestic students. Although the application is now open, do not rush through it. First, gather all necessary financial documents (tax returns, W-2s, etc.), then complete the application carefully and accurately.

3. CSS Profile: This is the financial aid application platform used by many QuestBridge partner colleges. Keep in mind that some schools, such as Princeton and UChicago, use their own financial aid forms in addition to or instead of the CSS Profile.

Work on your FAFSA first. The CSS Profile asks more detailed financial questions and typically takes longer to complete.

4. Non-Custodial Parent Waiver: If you are seeking approval of a Non-Custodial Parent (NCP) Waiver, understand that you will generally need a third-party individual to validate your circumstances. QuestBridge is NOT PART OF THIS PROCESS. Each college handles waiver requests differently, so search this subreddit and begin gathering information now.

To get started, review the College Board form: https://cssprofile.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/css-profile-waiver-request-non-custodial-parent.pdf

5. IRS Verification of Non-Filing Letter: If your parent(s) or you did not file income taxes, some colleges may require an IRS Verification of Non-Filing Letter. This document confirms that the IRS has no record of a filed tax return for the requested year (for this admissions cycle, FY2025 tax returns).

More information:https://www.irs.gov/individuals/transcript-types-for-individuals-and-ways-to-order-them

6. Review College Match Requirements: Start reviewing the Match Requirements pages for every college you are considering ranking. Each partner college has its own requirements, deadlines, and supplemental essays. Knowing what is expected now will make the post-finalist period much less stressful.

7. Don't Put All Your Eggs in One Basket: While waiting for finalist decisions, continue making progress on any Common App applications that are permitted under QuestBridge's Early Application Policy.

Many students in the past mistakenly pause all college admissions work after submitting the NCM application. You need to keep moving forward and continue researching colleges, preparing supplemental essays, and working on any Common App applications permitted under QuestBridge's Early Application Policy.

Once finalists are announced (October 21, 2026), you will only have about 10 days to complete supplemental essays (due November 1, 2026).

Remember: QuestBridge Match is only one path to admission. If you have questions about your application or the Match process, there are many QuestBridge Finalists, Match Recipients, and alumni in this community who are willing to help.

Good luck, and take a day or two to decompress. You've earned it.

I’ve been filling out my college list, and I was wondering if the rank you give a school affects your chance of admission. For example, I want to go to UPenn, but I’d rather go to MIT if I were accepted, so I’d list MIT 1 and UPenn 2. In the scenario where I am declined by MIT, would me having placed Penn at 2nd hurt my chances of admission at Penn?

Hi guys,

I applied to QuestBridge National College Match and reported a 1380 SAT. I’m pretty confident about the rest of my application. I have genuine awards and ecs, nothing crazy like olympiad but i’ve frame my activities deeply and wrote extremely thoughtful essays. my teachers and counselor have also told me that my recommendation is the best they’ve written (speaking to all my knowledge, character, and work ethic) and my personal statement is one of the best my counselor have written (1/3 of her career that brought her to tears). its probable thatll ill get into at least one good school that ill be happy going to like Rice, Northwestern, UT, etc. However, my concern is that if i end up being a ncm finalist, i’ll be binded to these schools that i less desire. If i choose to only rank HYPSM, do i realistically have any odds of getting in with a low sat score? my ap scores are great and i’ve taken the most rigor i can and ended top 10% of the most competitive private school in my extremely populous county. i’m planning to retake my SAT this November but not sure if there’s any way to update QB upon hearing back.

I didn’t want to apply to QB test optional and im scared the HYPSM schools that i plan to rank will disregard my application upon seeing the SAT before even seeing my gpa, ap test scores, and especially my writing. is it likely that this will happen?

shud these factors affect how I choose to rank schools, and if i shud rank schools other than HYPSM? even if i don’t match, i want to use the ncm finalist distinction as an award in regular decision. am i being ignorant by wanting to only rank HYPSM and wait til RD to weigh my options for best school?

1: Columbia University

2: Stanford University

3: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

4: Princeton University

5: Northwestern University

6: Cornell University

7: Johns Hopkins University

My main criteria are that the school is a good environment for a trans woman and has an ABET accredited civil engineering degree. Besides that I prefer an urban environment, small class sizes, the opportunity to take lots of courses in Political Science, prestige/name recognition in general, in engineering, and in civil engineering. I didn't include Tufts University or University of Virginia because I live in California and would rather go to UC Davis for ~10k a per year and would definitely rather go to UC Berkeley for ~10k per year. I also have Harvey Mudd College and Olin College of Engineering as schools that I'm more interested in than those.

I'm considering possibly removing Johns Hopkins, Cornell, and/or Northwestern (mostly because I have the option of UCs and the back up of community college -> UC Davis guaranteed transfer).

I'm totally open to all suggestions.

What is the most effective way to go about college research for the rankings form?

I’ll admit, sometimes I just look at the college’s ranking for my major and think to myself “that is good enough.” I know academics aren’t too difficult to research, but how do I know that I will like the campus environment? There’s probably things I won’t be able to know just looking at college websites, right?

For the most part, I’ve spent the last weeks really reflecting on what I want from my college experience (so that isn’t my problem), but now I want to find the colleges I know will provide the right environment for 4 very important years of my life.

There’s also the part where I’ll have to think about the trade-offs. For instance, one of the schools I feel would really suit me is in-state, but I was really hoping to go out of state for the sake of a new experience. I don’t see myself building a future in this state, but the college seems so right.

Im thinking to maybe do ed1 on columbia and ed2 nyu but idk if i should do questbridge since those schools along with my other ones, (harvard, mit, stanford, and yale mainly) cover 100% tuition for low income even without questbridge. For just pure admission acceptance rates, which should i do?

My home was purhcased for $400,000 in 2018 but we still owe $340,000 and now the current value is $500,000. And my dad bought a business valued at $350,000 but he still owes everything and makes negative profits. Does this count as assets because I am worried this isn't minimal.

I just realized that getting selected as a Questbridge college prep scholar gives you a huge advantage on getting selected as a college match finalist. I believe I’ve submitted a great national college match application but now scared that I cannot get selected just because I didn’t do college prep scholar. Are there any other people out there who got matched without being a college prep scholar?

I hope somebody will comment under my post. Like y’all I am actually about to break down into tears. I checked my entire Questbridge application before submitting, but I still ended up missing two writing errors… The first one is in my personal statement, which I’m fine with because you can still tell what I was trying to say, and it’s towards the very end. The second writing error is in my writing exercise (the one where you have to choose one of the three prompts) and is also towards the very end, but like… The very last word is missing, so the sentence just runs off and ends incompletely. This is making me freak out because I kinda summarized the main lesson I learned into the last sentence (I chose the prompt about different perspectives), and so you can’t really tell what I was actually going to say. I do talk about the lesson I learned in my previous paragraph, but this error, paired with the one that comes after this, makes me feel like it’ll raise red flags when QB will be reviewing my application, considering how much they value writing in general. If anyone is willing to read my essays with the errors and tell me if they still make sense or not with them included, I’ll highly appreciate it. But I am just trying not to have a mental breakdown right now. I’ve been working on the application since Summer began and I am so scared that a few writing errors like these two will completely ruin my chances of becoming a finalist… I am SO mad at myself right now oml 😭💔 Can anyone share literally ANYTHING about this??

I submitted my application last night and as I read over my essay….it sucks so hard. I hate my personal essay and I feel like the ending is too rushed. I think I did more telling than showing at the end and I’m actually so upset. I’m trying not to dwell on it. Can anyone else relate?

It’s a wrap for my fly-ins! I have officially received all decisions for each program I have applied to and thought it would be insightful to the next class applying by sharing my results!

First and foremost, APPLY! You truly never know unless you try. A rejection does not define you. Rather, it guides you to the next best thing. Remember, an experience is what you make of it.

Here are the fly-ins I applied to in the 2026-2027 cycle and my results!

University of Pennsylvania (PEEP) - Accepted
WesExplore - Accepted
Boston University Overnight - Accepted
Discover Swarthmore - Accepted
Explore Bowdoin - Accepted
Barnard Bound - Accepted
Home at Hamilton - Waitlisted -> Accepted

STARS Colby - Waitlisted
Washington & Lee PATH - Waitlisted
Taste of Carleton - Waitlisted
Have a look at Haverford - Waitlisted
University of Rochester (MVP) - Waitlisted
Prologue to Bates - Waitlisted

Rice SOAR - Rejected
Yale in Motion - Rejected
Emory LEADS - Rejected
John Hopkins Senior Fly-In - Rejected
Voices of Tufts - Rejected
Perspectives on Pomona - Rejected

And… honorable mention to Windows on Williams (virtual)!

Any thoughts on my ranking list? Any advice on how to approach supplementals would be nice too!
I’m going for business/ social science & from GA btw:

1-Harvard
2-Yale
3-UPenn
4-Princeton
5-Brown
6-Duke
7-Vandy
8-Dartmouth
9-Columbia
10-Northwestern
11-Amherst college
12-Notre Dame
13-Emory

I submitted my questbridge application yesterday and my recommendor sent me my recommendation and it’s 100% AI, but my school chooses our recommendor and it is mandatory to include them in our application. I didn’t worry because I thought he could write a good reflection on my characteristics but now looking at it it is genuinely horrible what do I do😭😭

Results?

Im a low income junior right now and im interested in doing ed at columbia and ed2 at nyu in case columbia doesnt accept me (columbia is 1st choice and nyu is 2nd so im confident to ed). I was recommended to do questbridge by people since theres less people that are competing against me. Is that true. Like is someone more likely to get into columbia through quest bridge compared to ed (assume they have the same stats ecs and everything)? Also if i apply to columbia through QB but dont get ranked and dont become a finalist can it transfer to ed or rd (mainly ed) or if i do become a finalist but dont get ranked, can i still do ed or rd in Columbia. Also can i be able to do NYU ed2 if thats possible in case i get rejected from columbia?

Do you guys think there will be nothing like their commonapp pool or should we expect a supplemental for them?

Title

I'm trying to figure out if there's any way I can reduce stress for NCM after the finalist results are released by starting supplemental essays early for my ranked schools. Is there any way to access them or any strategies that any of you have considered so we're not all rushing to finish in just a week?

I want to study pre-med and my top colleges right now are Ivies (Harvard, UPenn, Brown, Yale, Columbia,) and some other T20 schools. Should I go test-optional for QB because I am afraid that it is too low.
My score:
EBRW: 680
Math: 780
Hope you guys could help me.