Over the past two years, Washington and Lee’s admissions office shifted its process to no longer consider applicants’ race or income when admitting students. But some admissions pillars, including the office’s commitment to QuestBridge, will stay the same.
The university’s participation in the QuestBridge program is derived from the same values that motivated the school to switch to a need-blind admissions process, said John Wolfgang, the admissions office’s QuestBridge coordinator.
“QuestBridge is also a really important way of bringing students from a lot of different backgrounds with a lot of different perspectives onto our campus to make sure that we’re as representative of the nation as possible,” Wolfgang said.
The university adopted a need-blind admissions process in late October but will continue recruiting students from low-income backgrounds through the QuestBridge program, said Wolfgang.
“First and foremost, QuestBridge is an avenue to bring in these high-achieving, high-character students onto our campus,” Wolfgang said.
The university has partnered with QuestBridge for over 10 years, and it has helped to enroll many of W&L’s first-generation, Pell-eligible students, Wolfgang said.
To be considered Pell-eligible, a student must show exceptional financial need, with most of the awards given to students coming from households earning less than $30,000 per year, according to Prep Scholar.
The lack of Pell-eligible students was a major factor in the university’s sudden drop in rankings in 2023.
QuestBridge students make up about 10% of every incoming class. Since 2010, the university has enrolled 326 students through the binding match program, according to The Columns.
The binding match program is one of three avenues for QuestBridge applicants to enroll at Washington and Lee, Wolfgang said. Top applicants, who meet the income threshold, are selected as QuestBridge finalists.
Finalists have the choice to enter the matching program, in which they rank their top 15 schools out of QuestBridge’s 52 college partners, according to the QuestBridge website. They are then matched with the university highest on their list, which also matches them. Finalists are required to attend their match school and receive a full four-year scholarship that covers nearly all expenses, according to QuestBridge.
If a finalist is not matched or chooses not to rank schools, they can use their QuestBridge application to apply Early Decision or Regular Decision to any of QuestBridge’s 52 partners with no application fee. QuestBridge’s partners span from private, liberal arts schools to large, selective public universities.
For students admitted through QuestBridge Early or Regular Decision, all partner universities meet 100% of demonstrated financial need, Wolfgang said.
“At a school like W&L, it’s not a big deal,” Wolfgang said. “We do that for all of our students.”
For other universities, applying through QuestBridge allows students to receive more financial aid, Wolfgang said.
Other QuestBridge applicants who are not chosen as finalists can still apply to the university using their QuestBridge application.
“There are some students who maybe… didn’t meet the income threshold for QuestBridge to select them as finalists, but they still have a really compelling application,” Wolfgang said.
Once QuestBridge students come to campus, Wolfgang said the organization acts as an important community.
“In much the same way that … an athletic team kind of comes in, [QuestBridge] students who are coming from all across the country can get to W&L and already have that little foothold in the community aspect.”
In December, 24 QuestBridge finalists were matched with the university, according to the W&L QuestBridge Instagram account. They became the first members of the class of 2029 and will arrive on campus next fall.