Local senior offered full-ride scholarship after becoming a finalist in a highly competitive program
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AMMON — A local high school senior recently accepted a full four-year scholarship offer worth over $325,000 to a college back east.
Samuel Porter, a student at Hillcrest High School, was offered the scholarship by Middlebury College in Vermont. He was awarded the scholarship after applying to a competitive program called QuestBridge.
QuestBridge connects high-achieving students from low-income backgrounds with full four-year scholarships “from 55 of the nation’s best colleges.”
“They have this application process to connect students to schools. It’s called QuestBridge College Match,” Porter explained. “It’s like a basic college application. I submitted that at the end of September.”
Three weeks later, Porter found out he had been selected as a finalist. This meant QuestBridge was going to send his application to up to 15 schools that he had ranked in order of most preferred schools to attend to schools he was still interested in attending, just not as high on his list. Porter ranked 10 schools.
“If I matched with one of those schools through QuestBridge, then I’d get a full-ride scholarship there,” he said.
On Dec. 1, Porter found out he matched with Middlebury College. The match is binding, which means he must attend Middlebury. At one point, Porter said Middlebury College was his top choice.
The Match Scholarship covers the full cost of attendance, including tuition and fees, housing and food, books, supplies, and travel expenses. This year, QuestBridge’s 55 college partners matched with 2,550 finalists, who are recognized as Match Scholarship recipients, according to QuestBridge.
QuestBridge’s website states that when it comes to high school academic achievement, typically, national college match finalists achieve things such as “earn primarily A’s in the most challenging courses available, rank in the top 5 to 10% of their class and challenge themselves by taking Honors, AP, and/or IB courses if available.”
“I’m one of nine students in the nation right now that got matched with Middlebury College this year,” Porter mentioned.
While attending Middlebury, Porter wants to learn a language, study abroad, and complete internships. He said he plans to major in international and global sciences.
“I want this free-form vibe of connecting with people throughout the world, like humanitarian and environmental stuff,” he said.
Porter expressed his gratitude for Hillcrest High School teacher Suzie Daley who he said told him about QuestBridge and helped him with his application. He’s looking forward to what’s to come and is thankful for this opportunity of a lifetime.
“I am really excited to see the community that I’ll get (at Middlebury),” he said. “I’ll get to be an adult and live on my own, which is something I’m super excited for. But then I’ve also got great networking and friendship opportunities built into my college which will be wonderful because that’s going to be what my entire career is going to be based off of.”