Are you an ambitious student, from a low-income family hoping to go to college and have amazing experiences in life after high school? I am one of those people and was introduced to the national program QuestBridge by our schools former college counselor, Mrs. Alana Haitsuka. I am currently going through the QuestBridge process. I was selected as a QuestBridge College Prep Scholar and now am exploring the opportunities and support this program offers as well as their 52 college partners and preparing to enter the National College Match in the fall.

 Allow me to explain what QuestBridge is, how you qualify to apply, and why you should apply and how it will benefit you in the long run. Questbridge is a national organization that was founded in 1994 and over the years has gained more and more partnerships with colleges and universities around the United States.

To be eligible to apply to this incredible program, you need to be a high school junior or senior, who is currently enrolled and attending a high school within the U.S.  To be able to apply your family income must be 65,000 dollars or lower annually. If you meet this criteria, then I highly encourage you to apply because if you are selected as a College Prep Scholar, you are automatically recognized as a strong candidate for their 52 college partners as well as other colleges that are not partnered.

One of the applicants from our school who did not make it into QuestBridge still got a full ride scholarship into a great college, so while it is a highly competitive program, don’t feel discouraged because when college admissions officers look at your application and see you were a QuestBridge applicant, it will make you look really good and you may get good financial offers.

If you make it as a Scholar, it’s like floodgates of support and opportunity are opened to you.

 You get access to a ton of support from all 52 of the college partners as well as access to special programming opportunities, expense-paid campus visits, virtual and in-person information sessions, and a lot more!

These are all great things to take advantage of because they will prepare and guide you along your application process and you can ask anyone who has applied to college; it is a very tedious process that is better to not do alone. 

QuestBridge has 52 college partners. Here is a list of all of them. Just click on a college name that you are interested in for more information: 

• Amherst College
• Barnard College
• Boston College
• Boston University
• Bowdoin College
• Brown University
• California Institute of Technology
• Carleton College
• Case Western Reserve University
• Claremont McKenna College
• Colby College

• Colgate University
• College of the Holy Cross
• Colorado College
• Columbia University
• Cornell University
• Dartmouth College
• Davidson College
• Denison University
• Duke University
• Emory University
• Grinnell College

• Hamilton College
• Haverford College
• Johns Hopkins University
• Macalester College
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Middlebury College
• Northwestern University
• Oberlin College
• Pomona College
• Princeton University
• Rice University

• Scripps College
• Skidmore College
• Smith College
• Stanford University
• Swarthmore College
• Tufts University
• University of Chicago
• University of Notre Dame
• University of Pennsylvania
• University of Southern California
• University of Virginia

• Vanderbilt University
• Vassar College
• Washington and Lee University
• Washington University in St. Louis
• Wellesley College
• Wesleyan University
• Williams College
• Yale University

Let’s say you apply to QuestBridge and are selected as a College Prep Scholar. What next? 

Next, there will be a virtual information session that will be scheduled for you and all the other Scholars to attend where your next steps will be explained. There will be events such as campus visits, workshops, and info sessions scheduled by QuestBridge over the coming summer to help you strengthen your application, and in the Fall of that year (your senior year), is when you apply to the National College Match.

The National College Match is a system that will match you to one of QuestBridge’s 52 college partners and if you match, a full 4-year ride Match Scholarship will be guaranteed to you.

 This scholarship covers not only full college tuition and fees, but housing/room and board, meal plans, books and supplies, and travel expenses! But it should be mentioned that there is a possibility of not being matched at all to a college. As I said previously, it is okay if you do not match to a college! You still got resources opened up to you that is a big help for applying to college, you still have the honorary distinction of being a QuestBridge College Prep Scholar, and if you choose to reapply to one of QuestBridges 52 college partners, your QuestBridge application can roll right over to that college’s admissions office (you won’t have to fill out a whole separate application). One more thing I think is worth mentioning is that applying to QuestBridge is also worth it for networking and making connections and friends with other College Prep Scholars around the country. 

Overall, QuestBridge is a unique program that anyone who is eligible for and wants to go to college, should apply to! It could make a huge impact on your life and help you be successful in the future.