Questbridge RD vs Common App RD

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Just to clarify this question for the broader audience, let me share that Questbridge is a community-based service organization that matches highly qualified low-income and often first-generation non-Int'l students (US, Green Card, DACA) with 50 partner schools looking with DEIA admissions policies with full ride scholarships (minus normal work-study and often some EFC amount less than $5000). To qualify to apply to QB NCM (National College Match) typical household income is less than $65K and 85% are on some subsidized school meal plan. About 35% of the 18000 annual applicants or roughly 6000 get selected each year as NCM finalists which allows them to rank up to 15 college Early Early Decision (apply by 10/15 and get a decision by 12/1) concurrently in order of most desirable to least. Can rank ZERO, 1,2,3,---- up to 15. And depending on if you get matched with the school, the agreement to attend is binding. So if you rank say Stanford, UChicago, Emory, Vanderbilt, and Davidson, and you get matched with Davidson, you must attend. If you do not get matched with your ranking list, you still can apply through the same QB application for regular decisions to all the remaining partner schools.

So of the 6000, that make the first cut, about 1800 get matched which is 10% of the original application pool. So 90% do not get matched but they can still apply RD either through QB or the common app. If you use QB, you can not apply through the common app ED, or EA with the Nov. 1 application deadlines. You have to wait for your results on 12/1, before doing anything with the common app.

So the poster asked should they apply QB RD or Common APP if they do not get matched to their ranking list.

The only answer is to use the QB RD application for the partner schools because any overlap in your college list is already filed in the QB application and the schools already have a copy of your application if you are applying RD. There is no need to repeat the process a 2nd time for the QB partner schools you ranked. The 2nd not so obvious reason is that all the 50 partner schools give preferential treatment to the QB applicants using the QB application vs the common app because they are evaluating you against other people in your QB pool, not so much the entire RD pool which includes applicants from all walk of life including recruited athletes, donor kids, faculty brats, legacies, international students and applicants who can pay full fare without financial aid. So if Stanford sees your QB RD application and gets 1000 QB RD applications, your decision will be based on the pre-determined quota Stanford has for QB admits. So if they have 150 spots for QB and they already gave out 75 for "Match Day", then they will pick the next best 75 QB applicants out of the 1000 application pool which is like 7.5%. But if you apply to Common App, your application might get lumped in with the 50,000 RD applicant pool. Maybe it gets flagged as a QB application, or maybe not. But if you apply through the QB Portal, there is no question for Stanford admissions.

So if you are a strong applicant, your chances are better to apply through QB to the QB partner school because they are looking out for your application. If you are applying to Harvard, then you only have the choice of using the Common App since they are not a QB partner school. And many top 1% QB applicants forgo ranking any colleges because they really want to apply and get into Harvard.

Good luck.