January, 2023
By Kevin Benitez, Staff Reporter
This year, KAC had many QuestBridge finalists (a non-profit partnered with top schools around the country including: Stanford, Yale, Brown, Columbia, MIT, Princeton, and more), including seniors Ana Sanchez, Lizeth Moctezuma, Gabriela Sosa, Beatriz Tinoco, Danela Lira, Karen Herrera, and Ailin Mendoza.
With the application opening up on September 1st, due September 21st, QuestBridge offers a 4-year scholarship only offered to elite students, though it is only offered to students from low-income families (with a maximum income of $70k).
Applicants must be at the top 10% of their class and stand out; this could mean having impressive extracurriculars or writing mesmerizing essays to capture the attention of their audience. Applicants are evaluated in the aspects previously mentioned in addition to their performance on standardized tests, though students are recently not required to submit ACT/ SAT scores and AP scores since the COVID-19 pandemic.
After completing the initial application, students must wait on the results whether they will be a finalist, which would mean they could have an opportunity to be matched with a university. After being selected, finalists must submit all the required application work to these universities to try and advance and get the full-ride scholarship.
The way QuestBridge works is the applicant creates a ranking for what schools they are interested in. The schools won’t know what number they were ranked in, and the applicant is accepted to their top school in order that chose them, “matching” them back.
This year only about ⅓ of applicants were selected as finalists, which sounds like a lot, but when compared to the vast number of elite students applying to it, it is certainly an incredible achievement.
Unfortunately, after the finalists stage is when many students don’t manage to advance as they aren’t matched to a school. For our cardinal peers, 3 people matched to schools. Ailin Mendoza matched to University of Pennsylvania, Lizeth Moctezuma to Washington and Lee University, and Danela Lira to California Institution of Technology. Due to all of their colleges being out of state, Questbridge also covers traveling expenses to the university, in order to make moving easier for the incoming undergraduates.
Learn about our qualified peers!
Name: Ailin Mendoza
Interest: Business and marketing
School: University of Pennsylvania
Ailin was matched with UPenn, which offers her the strong basis of business information that she will need in the future. The University of Pennsylvania is a perfect match for Ailin because as it is ranked #1 among the best business schools in the country. With UPenn being located in Pennsylvania, traveling will get expensive, as such, Questbridge covers the cost of the first plane ride to the university to alleviate some of the stress that alumni will have at their universities as it would be their first year in college.
Name: Lizeth Moctezuma
Interest: Journalism and English
School: Washington and Lee University
Lizeth Moctezuma is interested in becoming an English major as she aspires to be a writer in the future. Therefore, she ranked a school that would most fulfill her interests, which Washington and Lee University accomplishes by having a strong journalism program that would undoubtedly help Lizeth grow even more as a writer than she currently is.
Name: Danela Lira
Interest: Software engineering
School: California Institution of Technology.
Danela Lira aspires to be a software engineer, as such she was able to be matched with a strong engineering school such as California Institution of Technology (or Caltech for short). Caltech has one, if not the best engineering programs in the country, which would essentially contribute to teaching Danela the necessary skills needed to become a software engineer.
All in all, QuestBridge will allow for alleviating stress for students related to tuition as matched participants will now have a full ride to their dream schools. Additionally, it provides a perfect match for what the student is seeking in their future and will provide them with a full ride to the school that would provide them with the best resources for their future. While the process may be lengthy and difficult to get through, the outcome will be well worth it knowing that you can go to an incredible university and eventually get the career you’ve always dreamt of.
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