Three Bob Jones Students were recently matched with two of our nation’s greatest colleges, Stanford and Washington University. Both schools rank in the top 20 of best colleges in the United States. Seniors Reedham Kalaryia and Shiyeon Ku matched with Washington University in St. Louis and Marielle Baumgartner matched with Stanford University. These seniors receive full scholarships, including tuition, room and board, travel expenses, books, and supplies. 

Questbridge, a non-profit organization that serves top students from low-income households, ensures that these students find the best possible college match for them. 

Questbridge matched 1,127 students with scholarships. Among those recipients, 95% came from households with an annual income of $65,000 or less, and 85% qualified for free or reduced school lunches. 1,127 students will be guaranteed a college experience free of charge. All Questbridge recipients will be granted early admission to the colleges. 77% of these recipients will be the first in all their family’s generations to attend college.

Shiyeon Ku, one of the Bob Jones recipients, never dreamed of going to a school like Washington University. She had initially planned on going to schools that specialized in art, her strong suit. RISD, the Rhode Island School of Design, Cooper Union, and SCAD, Savannah College of Art and Design are some colleges she considered because they specifically specialized in that area. While she did consider Wash U, a school whose Fine Art program ranks 12th in the nation, she knew that her application would have to fight hard just to get accepted. Shiyeon said, “From start to finish, Questbridge was quite a surreal experience. With the numerous amount of applicants and finalists, I did not believe that I was qualified enough to even compete with the students of such caliber.”

At Wash U, Shiyeon is considering majoring in B.F.A, Bachelor of Fine Arts, and B.A., a pre-professional degree program, for design. Shiyeon joked that after college, she might become a starving artist, but her art teachers and multimedia design teachers all agreed that if someone is going to make it in a creative field, Shiyeon will. “My parents were enthralled that they don’t have to pay anything out of their pockets, and I was glad that the stressful journey of writing countless college essays was finally over,” Shiyeon said.

The average unweighted GPA of the Questbridge recipients was 3.93, and students had an ACT score between 30-33 or scored between 1350-1500 on the SAT. Also, 93% of the recipients were in the top 10% percent of their graduating class. To gain the scholarship, students must work extremely hard for it. 

If you meet the criteria, be sure to talk to Dr. Bostick in College and Career Counseling in the upstairs Commons.