QuestBridge

QuestBridge is a national nonprofit based in Palo Alto, California. Its goal is to connect low-income and first-generation students with partner colleges and universities.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]}

QUESTBRIDGE

Founded	1987; 38 years ago (1987) (as Stanford Medical Youth Science Program)
Founders	Michael McCullough Ana Rowena Mallari
Location	Palo Alto, California, U.S.
Website	www.questbridge.org

Background

In 1987, Stanford University students Marc Lawrence and Michael McCullough started the Stanford Medical Youth Science Program as an outreach program for eight low-income students from East Palo Alto who were interested in a future in medicine.^[8] This program eventually led to the launch of the Quest program in 1994, then called the Stanford Youth Environmental Science Program (SYESP), aimed specifically at Stanford.^[8] Although they initially expanded to include Harvard University, this program ended by 2002 as the focus returned to Stanford.^[8] By 2004, the program had evolved into QuestBridge.^[7] Over the next decade QuestBridge developed partnerships with a number of colleges.^[8]

According to the Columbia Daily Spectator in 2021, QuestBridge's goal is to match "high school students with a full-ride offer of admission from one of its 45 partner universities. Targeting students based on data from admissions tests and networks of guidance counselors, QuestBridge aims to reach high-achieving students well before the typical January application deadlines, offering mentoring programs that make the admissions process—which traditionally advantages wealthy students—more accessible for low-income applicants."^[5]

Partner colleges

As of 2025^[update], the National College Match officially has 55 partner colleges, a mix of research universities and liberal arts colleges.^[9][10]

Northeast

• Amherst College
• Barnard College
• Bates College
• Boston College
• Boston University
• Bowdoin College
• Brown University
• Colby College
• Colgate University
• College of the Holy Cross
• Columbia University
• Cornell University
• Dartmouth College
• Hamilton College
• Harvard College
• Haverford College
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Middlebury College
• Princeton University
• Skidmore College
• Smith College
• Swarthmore College
• Tufts University
• University of Pennsylvania
• Vassar College
• Wellesley College
• Wesleyan University
• Williams College
• Yale University

South

• Davidson College
• Duke University
• Emory University
• Johns Hopkins University
• Rice University
• University of Richmond
• University of Virginia
• Vanderbilt University
• Washington and Lee University

Midwest

• Carleton College
• Case Western Reserve University
• Denison University
• Grinnell College
• Macalester College
• Northwestern University
• Oberlin College
• University of Chicago
• University of Notre Dame
• Washington University in St. Louis

West

• California Institute of Technology
• Claremont McKenna College
• Colorado College
• Pomona College
• Scripps College
• Stanford University
• University of Southern California