Are you interested in applying to and attending top schools* such as Amherst, Columbia, MIT, University of Virginia, or Yale, but lack the financial means to do so? The QuestBridge National College Match Program may be just for you. If you have never heard of this highly supportive and generous program, the QuestBridge site lists the obvious advantages to participating as follows:
- Full four-year scholarships with no loans
- 31 top-ranked partner colleges (click here for a full list of Questbridge’s partner colleges)
- A focus on high-achieving low-income students
- Two opportunities for college admission
- One free application
This last aspect of QuestBridge is really spectacular; if you plan on applying to multiple top schools, the cost of applications alone can easily balloon to several hundred dollars, so a single, free application is a huge advantage.
Students that qualify for the National College Match typically come from households with a total income of $60,000 or less, and over 75% of participants are in the top 5% of their high school class. Make sure to check out the eligibility requirements to see if this program would be a fit for you. If you are an eligible high school senior (for the 2011-2012 school year), you can begin your Questbridge online application right on their website.
As always, best of luck!
*all 31 partner colleges of the QuestBridge National College Match are as follows:
Amherst College, Bowdoin College, Brown University, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Columbia University, Dartmouth College, Emory University, Grinnell College, Haverford College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Northwestern University, Oberlin College, Parsons The New School for Design, Pomona College, Princeton University, Rice University, Scripps College, Stanford University, Swarthmore College, Trinity College, University of Chicago, University of Notre Dame, University of Pennsylvania, University of Southern California, University of Virginia, Vassar College, Washington and Lee University, Wellesley College, Wesleyan University, Williams College, and Yale University.
