Archived Edition: May 10, 2006 | Back to Current	Jul 31, 2010

Questbridge students reflect on first year
Jeremy Goldstein - EXECUTIVE EDITOR

During high school, Ana Hernandez-French ’09 had all the characteristics of a future collegiate success story. With a solid GPA, enthusiastic recommendations from teachers and a strong academic drive stemming from an encouraging family and a rigorous high school environment, she seemed like a shoo-in for a top school. Despite all these indicators, however, Hernandez-French heard again and again that she would likely be unable to attend an elite private college without obtaining a large number of outside scholarships. In the face of these doubts, Hernandez-French is now nearing the end of a successful first year at Williams, well-adjusted and largely indistinguishable from the rest of the student body.

Hernandez-French is one of 13 students in the class of 2009 matched with Williams by the Questbridge Foundation, an organization that identifies academically gifted students from low-income backgrounds and offers them a free ride to a normally expensive private school.

“In addition to demonstrating the incredible academic achievement typical in the Williams applicant pool – including the standard indicators like SAT scores that we know are highly correlated with income – Questbridge students also tend to show the tremendous unquantifiable attributes of drive and determination,” said Mark Robertson, Assistant Director of Admissions.

The partnership is still in its first years at Williams, but College administrators have high hopes for program and its ability to give the College greater access to a diverse pool of new applicants.

Initial student reaction is overwhelmingly positive as well. Williams’ pioneer class of Questbridge students is currently approaching the end of their first year at the College. Their experiences shine light on what it is like growing up with modest means and arriving at a school with a stigma of prestige and money. “East Coast private schools have this reputation for being full of East Coast money, but it’s not as in-your-face as you might imagine,” Hernandez-French said.

This year, 40 students on campus were identified to admissions through the Questbridge program, 13 of whom became finalists after the program looked closely at their academic program, and were offered full need-based scholarships. Overall, 49 percent of the Class of 2009 received some form of financial aid, approximately 17 percent of whom came from Questbridge, according to Robertson.

“I think that many aspects of Williams’ student life and life in Williamstown can mute socioeconomic differences, though they certainly shouldn’t be ignored,” Robertson said. “Diversity recruitment aims to create a potential for interactions between students representing the many communities of our country, and the need to maximize this potential for interaction goes both ways.”

At the end of their first year at Williams, many Questbridge students expressed surprised at how wealth was not as much a defining factor on campus as they had expected. “It’s funny how fast you fit in,” Hernandez-French said. “You think that coming off of the [Questbridge] application process, that you’re special, that you’re noticeably not as rich. Then suddenly its being emphasized that you’re not [out of the ordinary].”

As Robertson and others point out, though the differences always exist, the College’s atmosphere does a lot to even the playing field. Most students eat in dining halls, and school events, such as concerts, cost only a few dollars.

“You come here and it [the money issue] just kind of disappears,” Hernandez-French said. “You meet other people, some of whom were matched through Questbridge, but everyone is perfectly normal.”

Similarly, transition difficulties did not turn out to be as insurmountable as some Questbridge students feared before they arrived. In order to be considered for Questbridge, students must have strong academic records, though not necessarily in the form of high standardized test scores, which tend to be concentrated among students from affluent households, Robertson said. As a result of such screening, Questbridge students come in with plenty of intellectual firepower with which to tackle Williams’ coursework, needing only to adjust to the new system along with the rest of their peers.

“College is a new environment for all everyone, not just Questbridge students and all have to adjust,” said John Vu ’09, another Questbridge student. “Likewise, most of what we’re taught is new, many of us hadn’t had that stuff before. What’s important is how we study, how well we can learn something in a short amount of time and how dedicated we are.”

Colbye Prim ’09, for instance, attended a “run-of-the-mill” public high school in Louisiana in which academics were less than stellar. Before applying and being accepted to a public boarding school, she did not realize how important a secondary school can be when it comes to looking towards college. If she had not had an older sister’s footsteps to follow, Prim said, she would not have been as motivated to succeed in high school.

“My school talked about PSAT and the SAT as if they were something you could take if you wanted, maybe if you wanted to be extra special,” Prim said. “In high school, there was no pressure to work hard and if it wasn’t for my older sister, I wouldn’t have been motivated.”

Perhaps one reason that Questbridge students claim such success in their transition into college relate to the fact that many had to work hard to overcome adversity from a young age. Vu, for instance, never had a AP Calculus BC class offered at his school, so he and one other student created one, one opportunity that Vu points to as an example of students creating opportunities where none existed.

Therefore, most do not feel as though attending an elite prep school would have better prepared them for college. However, Prim and Hernandez-French both admit that there were small things that could have made a difference. Prim, for instance, points to knowing how to ask professors for help and extensions as one such benefit of a prep school education. She never would have thought to e-mail a professor with questions or ask for extensions, she said.

In future years, Williams’ Questbridge students look to increase awareness of the opportunities out there for low-income students. Students can be turned off by a high price tag, said Robertson, and thus only look elsewhere. Questbridge aims to make Williams affordable for everyone.

“I’d be interested in trying to [make] people more knowledgeable, letting them know that it’s actually cheaper to go to a private school with an endowment than a cheaper state school because the former can support you,” Hernandez-French said. “That’s something that I don’t think people know about.