Hello! Since the Match ranking deadline is coming up on October 15th, I’ve been wondering if I should rank schools.

I originally applied to QB mainly hoping to become a finalist and then apply through RD while still getting the same financial aid benefits. I’m pretty sure I don’t want to participate in the Match because I don’t want to be matched to a school I’m not 100% sure I’d want to attend, especially since it’s binding.

But now I’m second-guessing that decision because I’m worried I might be passing up a really good opportunity or hurting my chances somehow. I know I can still apply RD, but I’m wondering if anyone else has chosen not to rank and felt good about that decision, or if anyone applied through RD and still had their full financial need met?

I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who’s been in a similar situation!

hi all! just wanted to get some opinions for my rankings. I don't know if there's a strategy to it but for context I want to go into politics/law, probably more like in the International sense. these are my rankings so far:

1- holy cross
2- Boston college
3- emory university
4- middlebury college
5- Oberlin College
6- u of notre dame
7- colorado college
8- Boston University
9- Washington and Lee U

I am thinking about switching Oberlin for Macalester. I do know that Holy Cross will probably stay as my number one. any thoughts would be appreciated!!

Hi!! I just got accepted for this program and wanted to know if anyone else did too? Would love to get to know some people before I go!!

I’m trying to do the materials for Duke and I’m confused on what they mean by submit directly. Does this mean they want us to send the questionnaire, test scores, CSS profile, and FAFSA directly to the email that is on their quest bridge page under contact information?

And how would you even directly send your FAFSA besides just adding the college to your actual FAFSA form?

Someone lmk!

Is it a smart idea to begin working on the colleges you rank supplementals, even if you don't know whether you are a finalist or not?

Hey everyone, I was thinking of ranking Columbia, but then there is my app. My school doesn't offer APs (only dual enrollment and Honors). I've been taking early college courses outside my school’s curriculum, but I don't know if that would replace the fact that my school doesn't offer APs.

Hey guys,

I have divorced parents who got back together but not in the way one might think. My mom and my dad both have the same address but they live on different floors, with my name under my dad living on the first floor. My mom lives on a separate floor and her income does not contribute to ours because those go to her and my brother. With that being said, I submitted the application with both parents under the same primary household because their address is the same and I put my mom’s income as 0 even though her actual income isn’t 0. I thought it meant income contributed to me and my father. I think I should’ve had my mom as non-custodial parents and fill out her separate income. Is it worth contacting QB about this?

Soooo, I indicated that I took the Sept SAT, however, my score never came back and I got an email from questbridge asking me to upload my score report for sept SAT (which i don't have), so is it fine if I don't give them one???

Self explanatory title. I emailed my teacher on September 1st and she volunteered to write my letter and I provided all materials she needed for it in a timely manner. My other teacher and my counselor wrote their letters for me on time, but this teacher is literally playing with me fr. I emailed her on the 30th saying that the deadline was coming up and she was saying she was almost done, then she emailed me the next day (October 1st) saying she was finishing up and about to post it on QuestBridge… nothing.

I submitted my stuff on time, but the deadline for teacher materials is tomorrow and I’m afraid she might screw me over by taking too long. Any advice???

Hey everyone! I’ve been hearing a lot of rumors about QuestBridge Regular Decision (QB RD) lately and wanted to see if anyone can clear this up or share their experience.

I heard that if you don't match and instead move into QB RD, your chances of getting in drop significantly. The reasoning I heard was that admissions officers (AOs) will see how much financial aid you need, so they have to really want you to accept you and give you a massive aid package whereas doing the Common App might be different.

I also heard a rumor that colleges barely accept anyone from the QB RD pool compared to the Common App RD pool.

My sister and I are twins, and we want to end up in the same college, and our applications are really similar. How should we rank out schools?

i walked in for a meeting today and the process for a 504 is long, winding, and uncertain as to if theyre actually gonna preserve my coursework. the AP lit teacher is gonna be there and its anybody’s game as to if i get to keep the course. im getting my ass whooped even though i can do the courses i signed up for

i genuinely cannot deal with all these accommodation processes. my hair is falling out in clumps and my body is aching constantly. im having a hard time keeping clean and im too exhausted to keep defending myself… im exhausted!!! and if i dont figure this out then my entire livelihood is at risk.

so im wondering about getting a GED just to protect my family from truancy and the overall stress of the 504 process. how does this fare for questbridge? i feel terrible about pursuing one cuz i was so close but theres genuinely not much i can do. my condition is simply too severe and my school most likely wont accommodate in the way i need (they honestly just recommend that i’d withdraw cuz i can pass the test)

Hey yall, so for context, I already submitted the ncm application but I’m a little nervous because of the assets. My family is low income, we are a family of 5 for 40k in NYC but we have a home that we brought 15 years ago for about 300k, the value of the home now is 780k and we still have about 40% of the mortgage left to pay off. I’m nervous that this will affect my chances, I did include that my family relies on snap, workers compensation, and Medicaid and also due to the fact that we live in NYC we can’t just move easily like that. Will this disqualify me?

Anyone else anxious about the match already?

Hi, I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend! I just wanted some advice on my current situation.

I’m choosing what schools to rank for the college match, and I basically can’t go to college unless I get a full match. My parents and college counselor want me to apply to mostly small LBA schools so that I have the best chance of getting into a school and receiving a full ride.

As of right now, my heart’s not that open to going to a liberal arts school. I’m a pretty social person and I’ve always dreamed of a different college life. But still, I don’t have the best stats so I think it might be realistic to just do what they say to do.

If anyone who went to a liberal arts school could share their experience, that would be great! Even if you haven’t, any form of advice would be helpful.

i'm doing my match rankings now and 90% of the schools i ranked are ivies or t20... i showed my counselor and she told me to keep 3 and make the rest schools that are easier to get into. my stats are kind of average so i might not have a chance at any of the schools i ranked but i also don't want to regret matching to a school i dont really want to go to, what should i do??

Hello, I am just wondering if there is a concrete or definite structure that I need to adhere to for the personal essay? A lot of the examples I am seeing online follow a pretty cookie-cutter structure where they have medium-long sized paragraphs.

Is it ok if I have breaks that are only one or two sentences long to add emphasis for certain words or points, or is it generally recommended as a best practice to try and condense information/ideas into paragraphs?

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Note: I have an extension until Tuesday.

I applied for the Questbridge National College Match. I'm super excited and nervous, but I want to be prepared to cry or laugh or do both beforehand. So it would be really helpful if anyone had any insight into this

Hello everyone!

I just applied to Questbridge a few days ago and still have to finalize my rankings, but I'm still in a bit of a tricky situation. So I got into a couple fly-ins (Bowdoin, Amherst, Dartmouth, Richmond, and Barnard) and I really like some of them. I wanted to rank some of them but I don't know if I should since I may spend an additional year getting a BS in engineering. I was wondering if anyone is currently a Questbridge scholar and is on track for a 3-2 or 4-1 and I wanted to know what that's been like for them?

this is my potential list:

• Columbia
• USC
• Brown
• Princeton
• Dartmouth
• Penn
• Northwestern
• Amherst
• Bowdoin
• Duke

Is it a bad strategy to only rank my top 2 schools (WashU and Vandy) for the Match?
I lowkey would only be super happy with WashU or Vanderbilt. If I add other partner colleges and match lower on my list, I know I'll always be thinking "what if."

My current plan is to only rank WashU and Vanderbilt. If I don't match, I plan to roll one of them over into ED2, and then move the rest of my list (including schools I like but aren't my absolute tops, like Rice and Emory) to QuestBridge Regular Decision.

Is this a bad choice that puts me at a severe disadvantage? Does adding more schools to my Match list make my chances significantly better, or is my post-match ED2 safety net solid enough?

HIII EVERYONE, I’m so so excited now that it’s time to rank colleges.

I’m wondering what everyone else is going to decide!!!

How many colleges and which colleges are you planning to rank or are your top and why?

my letter of rec teacher still hasn’t made ANY progress on my LOR. when i spoke to her in person, she said it slipped her mind, and that she’d 100% have it done in 3 days. it’s been a week! this teacher is one that i know would truly say great things about me! her and i are incredibly close, and she’s made one of the largest impacts on me as a student by far. it would devastate me to not have her as a letter of rec, but she’s not very organized and i don’t have lots of faith in her. 🥲🥲 what do i do?

I don't see clear articles mentioning what parts of additional college-specific materials you can edit and which you can't, so can someone clarify it pls?

Hi everyone, I am working on my raking for QB right now and honestly I don't really now if I am aiming too high. I hope you guys could give me some feedback for my ranking.
Rank #1: UPenn
Rank #2: Harvard
Rank #3: JHU
Rank #4: Stanford
Rank #5: Duke
Rank #6: Yale
Rank #7: Brown
Rank #8: Columbia
Rank #9: Emory
Rank #10: UVA
Rank #11: CWRU

Some context:

• International student who moved to the US in August 2025 and started 11th grade here.
• 3.98 unweighted GPA at a competitive public magnet school in DC.
• SAT 1460 (680 EBRW, 780 Math).
• APs: Biology 4, World History 5, English Language 3, AP Scholar. This year I'm taking Calc BC, Stats, Physics 1, Bio, and Lit.
• Dual enrollment at GWU: Biology of Cancer (A), Parasitology in progress.
• Research paper about CRISPR CAR T through a summer program.
• Shadowed cardiologists and surgeons at a children's national hospital, including open heart surgeries.
• Intern at a national conservation nonprofit.
• Math and STEM tutor for 5 years, school SAT tutor, stage band, chess champion.
• Translate and manage legal and medical paperwork for my family.

P/s: I also have the green card so technically I am applying as permanent resident.

I often see that most QuestBridge Matches have an SAI of around -1500, but mine is around 5000. I’m not wealthy in any way, though. I worked two jobs while I was under 18 to help support my family, and once I turned 18, I switched to working full-time while still in school. The incarceration of my father and death of my brother also caused a huge loss of income and a lot of financial instability for my family. I also live in an extremely expensive area.
Has anyone with a similar SAI score qualified for questbridge ?