QuestBridge kids taking half the spots at top schools, and it’s unfair

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:QB is profoundly unfair when it means they get slots in place of better qualified kids. That's a fact at my high school. Why should they get T20 slots? They can get a GREAT education at a top public right? Don't people post that here all the time. Top academic performers that are QB. Okay, perfectly fine. 1300 SATs, less than 4.0 GPA. Still strong but T20 strong?

Give it up!

That 1300SATS from a kid who babysits siblings after school so Mom can work a 2nd or 3rd job or the kid themselves works 20+ hours/week in HS to help keep food on the table and the lights on is much more impressive than a coddled UMC+ kid. That kid has major potential and colleges recognize this.

I for one am happy to have them take a spot over my kid--they deserve it more, my kid will be just fine with their extreme privilege.

Would you rather have your kid grow up in their current MC/UMC life and attend a T100 school vs grow up in poverty and attend a top T20?

Yup! I'll take "Grow up MC/UMC" for $1000 Alex

[Anonymous]

Agreed on all fronts. Look at how many spots are being stolen by Thrive Scholars: https://www.instagram.com/thrivedecisions29?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

[Anonymous]

I have no problem with true QuestBridge kids at all. The problem a lot of people don't realize is that quite some of them are not poor at all. They are not middle class of course because middle class parents won't be able to hide their wealth. The ones I know, parents own companies or parents make money overseas. I don't understand how they could pass the QuestBridge criteria to be honest based on the living standard they have. Not to mention the ones who use college counseling companies to package their questbridge applications. Those services are not cheap at all. I know I couldn't afford it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have no problem with true QuestBridge kids at all. The problem a lot of people don't realize is that quite some of them are not poor at all. They are not middle class of course because middle class parents won't be able to hide their wealth. The ones I know, parents own companies or parents make money overseas. I don't understand how they could pass the QuestBridge criteria to be honest based on the living standard they have. Not to mention the ones who use college counseling companies to package their questbridge applications. Those services are not cheap at all. I know I couldn't afford it.

Hopefully schools figure out a way to monitor this and provide harsh penalties for applicants that submit fraudulent information because they are taking an opportunity away from an actual deserving low income kid. Also, it just puts a cloud on the entire program and allows entitled UMC parents that couldn't get their kids into the school another reason to complain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no problem with true QuestBridge kids at all. The problem a lot of people don't realize is that quite some of them are not poor at all. They are not middle class of course because middle class parents won't be able to hide their wealth. The ones I know, parents own companies or parents make money overseas. I don't understand how they could pass the QuestBridge criteria to be honest based on the living standard they have. Not to mention the ones who use college counseling companies to package their questbridge applications. Those services are not cheap at all. I know I couldn't afford it.

Hopefully schools figure out a way to monitor this and provide harsh penalties for applicants that submit fraudulent information because they are taking an opportunity away from an actual deserving low income kid. Also, it just puts a cloud on the entire program and allows entitled UMC parents that couldn't get their kids into the school another reason to complain.

Not one person on these 10 pages of comments has produced so much as a YouTube video implying QB cheating. If it's so ubiquitous, it should also be easy to demonstrate. The fact that it's not suggests that maybe this is not a real problem, and there is no actual "cloud on the entire program."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Since the Supreme Court ruling on admissions, now universities are looking at low to moderate income high achievers from QuestBridge to fill diversity slots. But what about minority kids who are high income? And everyone else? Are we all getting the shaft? My daughter is getting rejection after rejection even though she has high SAT scores and GPA. And I’m sure they chose a low income minority to fill that slot over us. The whole admissions game completely sucks. I’m tired of all these overkill programs leaning toward lower or moderate income. It needs to be a fair shot for all.

I think you said the quiet part out loud OP. Down with the poor minorities, up with the privileged whites.

OP said down with the poor minorities, up with the privileged (financially) minorities

There is a lot of anxiety among some UMC URM families.
Their URM status was a hook that has gone away.
Their kids have great grades and their test scores are good enough for Georgetown but they were expecting Yale.
Their parents had similar stats and they got into yale and they were hoping their kids would get the same consideration.
Except now their kids are UMC and will no longer get the same bump simply by being URM.
Now they have to be poor. And even worse, sometimes the poor kids are white.
And suddenly, the preference is unfair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agreed on all fronts. Look at how many spots are being stolen by Thrive Scholars: https://www.instagram.com/thrivedecisions29?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

"stolen"!!! quick, call the cops!!!

Or maybe, you know, they're good students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no problem with true QuestBridge kids at all. The problem a lot of people don't realize is that quite some of them are not poor at all. They are not middle class of course because middle class parents won't be able to hide their wealth. The ones I know, parents own companies or parents make money overseas. I don't understand how they could pass the QuestBridge criteria to be honest based on the living standard they have. Not to mention the ones who use college counseling companies to package their questbridge applications. Those services are not cheap at all. I know I couldn't afford it.

Hopefully schools figure out a way to monitor this and provide harsh penalties for applicants that submit fraudulent information because they are taking an opportunity away from an actual deserving low income kid. Also, it just puts a cloud on the entire program and allows entitled UMC parents that couldn't get their kids into the school another reason to complain.

However, no one here has provided any proof that people are defrauding questbridge. People will say things like “oh they look like they’ve been on vacation” but many qb scholars go to good boarding schools that pay for or help them get grants for those types of experiences. It is very likely you are seeing a class trip. Being poor doesn’t mean you have a bad education or only grow up in the inner city.

[Anonymous]

QB students are a fraction of recruited athlete admits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no problem with true QuestBridge kids at all. The problem a lot of people don't realize is that quite some of them are not poor at all. They are not middle class of course because middle class parents won't be able to hide their wealth. The ones I know, parents own companies or parents make money overseas. I don't understand how they could pass the QuestBridge criteria to be honest based on the living standard they have. Not to mention the ones who use college counseling companies to package their questbridge applications. Those services are not cheap at all. I know I couldn't afford it.

Hopefully schools figure out a way to monitor this and provide harsh penalties for applicants that submit fraudulent information because they are taking an opportunity away from an actual deserving low income kid. Also, it just puts a cloud on the entire program and allows entitled UMC parents that couldn't get their kids into the school another reason to complain.

However, no one here has provided any proof that people are defrauding questbridge. People will say things like “oh they look like they’ve been on vacation” but many qb scholars go to good boarding schools that pay for or help them get grants for those types of experiences. It is very likely you are seeing a class trip. Being poor doesn’t mean you have a bad education or only grow up in the inner city.

This is another subset of Questbridge kids who have already had every advantage in high school and are therefore undeserving of an additional admissions boost. Thanks for pointing that out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Since the Supreme Court ruling on admissions, now universities are looking at low to moderate income high achievers from QuestBridge to fill diversity slots. But what about minority kids who are high income? And everyone else? Are we all getting the shaft? My daughter is getting rejection after rejection even though she has high SAT scores and GPA. And I’m sure they chose a low income minority to fill that slot over us. The whole admissions game completely sucks. I’m tired of all these overkill programs leaning toward lower or moderate income. It needs to be a fair shot for all.

I think you said the quiet part out loud OP. Down with the poor minorities, up with the privileged whites.

OP said down with the poor minorities, up with the privileged (financially) minorities

There is a lot of anxiety among some UMC URM families.
Their URM status was a hook that has gone away.
Their kids have great grades and their test scores are good enough for Georgetown but they were expecting Yale.
Their parents had similar stats and they got into yale and they were hoping their kids would get the same consideration.
Except now their kids are UMC and will no longer get the same bump simply by being URM.
Now they have to be poor. And even worse, sometimes the poor kids are white.
And suddenly, the preference is unfair.

But those URM UMC kids are legacies at Yale. They get that boost instead of an URM boost just like the white legacies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:QB students are a fraction of recruited athlete admits.

QB, QB type programs, first gen, and Pell are over 1/3 of Swarthmore admits. So about equal. Non-SLACs have a lower proportion of athletes, so this category far exceeds the athlete proportion.

I think the complaint is about applicants hiding finances or falsely claiming first-gen (not necessarily through Questbridge, but in their applications generally). This is easier to do for immigrant families, though it is a problem generally. Are 10% of students getting into very selective schools as a result of first gen lying? Probably. That’s a huge problem…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am sorry, what school is 50% QB?

What the heck does this even mean?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:QB students are a fraction of recruited athlete admits.

QB, QB type programs, first gen, and Pell are over 1/3 of Swarthmore admits. So about equal. Non-SLACs have a lower proportion of athletes, so this category far exceeds the athlete proportion.

I think the complaint is about applicants hiding finances or falsely claiming first-gen (not necessarily through Questbridge, but in their applications generally). This is easier to do for immigrant families, though it is a problem generally. Are 10% of students getting into very selective schools as a result of first gen lying? Probably. That’s a huge problem…

How can you hide that your parent has a college degree, even if the degree was granted overseas somewhere? They count degrees received in outside the US as well, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:QB students are a fraction of recruited athlete admits.

QB, QB type programs, first gen, and Pell are over 1/3 of Swarthmore admits. So about equal. Non-SLACs have a lower proportion of athletes, so this category far exceeds the athlete proportion.

I think the complaint is about applicants hiding finances or falsely claiming first-gen (not necessarily through Questbridge, but in their applications generally). This is easier to do for immigrant families, though it is a problem generally. Are 10% of students getting into very selective schools as a result of first gen lying? Probably. That’s a huge problem…

How can you hide that your parent has a college degree, even if the degree was granted overseas somewhere? They count degrees received in outside the US as well, right?

some schools, elite ones, count a student as first gen when parents have a degree from outside the usa