Take a look at the National College Match Flowchart.
Before You Apply
- Review our Selection Criteria to make sure you are eligible to apply.
- Research our Partner Colleges. QuestBridge works exclusively with our 31 partner colleges. Because the National College Match is a binding process, you should make sure you are interested in attending our partner colleges before applying. "Binding" means that if you are selected for a scholarship through the College Match, you will be required to attend the college you were matched with. (There are 4 exceptions to this rule: MIT, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale. If you are matched with any of these 4 colleges, you are not required to attend.) If you choose to rank colleges, you will be allowed to rank up to 8.
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- Review our Application Components. In addition to our online application, you will be required to submit a transcript, standardized test score reports, and three letters of recommendation: one from your high school counselor, and two from teachers of core academic subjects. You will also want to obtain a School Profile, which is recommended but not required, and collect your parents' tax forms to use for reference. Additionally, each of our partner colleges has specific requirements that you will need to submit if you become a finalist, such as the CSS PROFILE, official test score reports, and school-specific application supplements. Please review these requirements for each of the partner colleges you are interested in ranking. Please also look ahead to see what test scores are required by each of our partner colleges.
The Application
1. Sign up for a QuestBridge Account.
To access the 2011 National College Match application, go to the Apply page.
Important information about signing up for your QuestBridge account:
- E-mail address: think carefully about the e-mail address you will be using to register your account with us. Make sure it is an e-mail address you access frequently. E-mail is our preferred method of contact, and you will continue to receive important notifications from us at the e-mail address you have registered with us. Furthermore, due to security reasons, we are only able to release application-specific information to students who write to us using the e-mail address they currently have registered with us. If you write to us using a different e-mail address to ask about your application or to receive scholarship notification information, we will ask you to write to us again using the correct e-mail address.
- Username and password: make these easy to remember.
- QuestBridge ID: when you sign up for a QuestBridge account you will be assigned a QuestBridge-specific ID located on your "My Locker" page. Please write this down and keep it somewhere accessible in case you need to access it when you are not at your computer.
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Once you've signed up for your QuestBridge account, familiarize yourself with your "My Locker" page, which is your QuestBridge application "homepage". Open the application and look over the questions so you can plan ahead to make sure you give yourself enough time to complete every section. You can navigate through the application using the links on the left side, even if you haven't completed the prior page.
2. Register Your Recommenders.
Your College Match application is not complete without two teacher recommendations and one counselor recommendation (also called your Secondary School Report). On your "My Locker" page you can register your recommenders. This will allow them access to your recommendation form.
Important: before you register your recommenders, make sure you ask them for their most updated e-mail addresses. If you enter the wrong e-mail address for them, they will not be able to access your online recommendation form when they create their account.
Register your recommenders as soon as you are able to (preferably during the first week of school) so that they have enough time to complete and submit your recommendations by the deadline. After you have entered their information, you will see a link called "Recommender Instructions" on your "My Locker" page. Print this out and give it to each of your recommenders.
Important: your recommenders will not receive an automatic e-mail from QuestBridge when you register them – you must provide them with this information. However, we will contact them with reminders and other general information, so you should not register a recommender until you are sure they will write your recommendation.
3. Submit Your High School Transcript and Test Score Reports.
Ask your high school to submit a copy of your academic transcript and test scores to QuestBridge via fax. We prefer that the transcript be official if possible, but if your high school is NOT able to fax official transcripts, an unofficial transcript is sufficient. If your high school does not have copies of your test scores, please provide them to your counselor. You may either fax us copies of the score reports you receive in the mail or print-outs from the testing organization website with your scores on it. Please do NOT send us your official score reports directly from the testing organization.
Important: you must fax these materials to us using the fax cover sheet entitled "Transcript and Test Scores" linked from your "My Locker" page. If you don't, they will not be included in your application.
It's a good idea to submit these to QuestBridge as soon as possible. Our fax line gets busy near the deadline, and because your transcript and test scores are items that are essentially ready to submit any time, we suggest you get it out of the way early.
Please note we cannot accept any materials sent through the postal mail.
4. Complete the QuestBridge Application.
Keep in mind that the application includes essay questions, short answer questions, and detailed questions about your academic performance and financial background, so leave yourself enough time to complete the best application you are able to.
5. Submit the QuestBridge Application by September 30.
The National College Match application deadline is September 30, 2011 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time. Around the time of the deadline, our servers experience heavy traffic, so if you are finished before September 30, we strongly recommend submitting early. (This goes for your recommenders as well!) All of the application components are also due on September 30, including:
- Two teacher recommendations
- Secondary School Report (counselor recommendation)
- Transcript
- Test Score reports
- School profile (recommended but not required)
After the Application Deadline
1. Submit Your College Match Rankings by October 12. After you have submitted your application, it will be time to choose which of our Partner Colleges you want to rank for the College Match. You may choose up to 8 colleges, or you may also choose not to rank any colleges (this will only make you eligible to apply to our Partner Colleges for Regular Decision. For more information on this, please see the Regular Decision Process page). Your rankings should be in order of preference, with your first college choice as number 1.
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Important: with the exception of 4 schools (MIT, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale), the match process is binding. You should only rank colleges you would want to attend if selected for a scholarship. "Binding" means that if you are admitted to a college through the College Match, you will be required to attend that school.
Your rankings must be submitted through your "My Locker" page by October 12, 2011, at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time.
2. Submit your Match Agreement Form by October 12. Your rankings will not be considered official without your Match Agreement Form. The form states that you understand the terms of the College Match process, and colleges will not consider you for the Match unless this form is submitted. The Match Agreement Form will be available on your "My Locker" page after your rankings have been submitted. The form must be signed by you, your high school counselor, and a parent or guardian, and then faxed to QuestBridge.
3. Look for your finalist notification e-mail on October 21. QuestBridge notifies applicants via e-mail of their finalist status on October 21. You will receive an e-mail from us regardless of whether or not you are a finalist.
If You Become a Finalist
1. Submit all College Match Requirements for Finalists by November 1. Each of our partner colleges has additional requirements you must submit in order to be considered for the College Match scholarship. See College Match Requirements for Finalists for more information.
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2. Re-arrange rankings by November 7 (if necessary). If the order of your college rankings preferences has changed, you may re-arrange the order of your college rankings by November 7 if you wish to do so. You will not be able to add any new schools to your rankings at this point, but you may re-order your list of colleges. If you choose to re-order your rankings, you must also submit a new Match Agreement Form by November 7.
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More about the "match" process. QuestBridge sends the finalist applications to our partner colleges for their review. Partner colleges ultimately make the final selection of scholarship recipients from among the finalists. Partner colleges select the students they would like to admit with College Match scholarships, and QuestBridge then matches those selected students with the highest-ranked college on their list that has also admitted them. A student will only be matched with one college. When a match is made between a finalist and a college, the agreement is binding (with the exception of MIT, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale, which are not binding). Matched students must withdraw any other college applications that they have submitted.
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3. Look for your notification e-mail on December 1. QuestBridge notifies all finalists who ranked colleges of their College Match status by e-mail on December 1. Because our partner colleges only offer a limited number of College Match awards, not all finalists will be matched. It is important to remember that not being matched is NOT the same as being rejected by the schools on your rankings list!
4. Finalists who are not matched are encouraged to apply to our partner colleges through the QuestBridge Regular Decision Process. QuestBridge finalists who do not receive College Match scholarships may be automatically considered in the Early Action or Regular Decision rounds at some of our partner colleges. Please see Regular Decision Requirements for more information.
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