At first Payton Pinkard felt like a test subject, chatting with a couple of dozen other high school seniors in a circle of office chairs while adults stood on the outside listening in.
They were at the end of a lengthy scholarship process with the Posse Foundation, having already submitted a few essays, sat through two interviews and matched to a participating school. This one was Texas A&M University, ready to admit a handful of the finalists and cover their full tuition.
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Pinkard let her guard down as she heard the other teens share their stories, though she knew the eavesdropping admissions officers were taking notes. She was in awe. Wildly different life experiences led them all to this same office building in downtown Houston in hopes of a cheaper ticket to college.
“Everybody knew how big the scholarship was, but we sat there as if, ‘Hey, this is just a cool little meetup,’” the 18-year-old said. “There’s (thousands) on the line for us, but we didn’t really think about it like that.”
Pinkard is a member of a generation applying to colleges with tuition near all-time highs and the national student loan debt at a crisis point. They see news stories about graduates drowning in bills and hear warnings from their family members, too. Deciding on a university often becomes a numbers game: Maybe they’ll get more financial aid if they forgo their dream school and go somewhere less prestigious, or even somewhere that feels less right for them. That’s if they get into the dream school at all.
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Payton Pinkard, left,a senior at Young Women’s College Prep, practices with her club volleyball team on Monday, Jan. 29, 2024 in Katy.
Elizabeth Conley/Staff Photographer
The combination of money, prestige and admission is what makes competitive scholarship programs like Posse and QuestBridge so attractive. Whether the result feels right is more of a toss-up –– in the so-called match programs, the school that chooses the student might not be their top choice. In that case, they still must go to the college, bound by a contract signed before they get the final answer.
Students like Pinkard think it’s a worthwhile gamble. If the college doesn’t end up being a perfect match, the possibility of minimizing or evading loans is still too good to pass up.
“I really wasn’t feeling A&M,” said Pinkard, a student at HISD’s Young Women’s College Preparatory Academy. “Financial (aid) is really what a lot of my family members are planting in my head, but also what I’m thinking about … my future after college and how my choice now will affect that,” she said.
Posse and QuestBridge are two of the country’s biggest college match programs, known for their roster of selective schools and built-in resources that ease the student transition out of high school and to a college degree. Applicants compete against thousands of other highly qualified students in an intense admissions process, and each participating institution only chooses a small fraction.
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It’s an illustrious prospect, even though scholars who study higher education say the applicants already have the credentials to be successful at many schools. The programs offer students opportunities they might not have been able to afford.
“My life is completely different now,” said 17-year-old Abdullah Naim, a Houston senior who matched with Duke University through QuestBridge. “If I didn’t get QuestBridge, I know I would have had to struggle a lot more. … Now I can relax a little more and focus on building up my skills for college instead of worrying about how I’m going to pay for college.”
QuestBridge has become one of the most coveted scholarships in America since it launched its National College Match in 2003, helping pair low-income students with some of the country’s most elite colleges and universities.
Think of the medical field’s National Resident Matching Program but for undergraduate degree programs. Seventeen- and 18-year-olds fill out a college application through the QuestBridge organization. They rank up to 15 of the college partners. After being whittled down to a group of finalists, students learn whether they get an early decision spot: They go to the highest school on their list that also wants them, and the college or university covers the cost of attendance including tuition and fees, housing, food, books and supplies and travel expenses.
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Participating institutions have grown in recent years, and so has the application pool. More than 50 colleges and universities in the U.S. now partner — including Stanford University, Swarthmore College, Rice University and all of the Ivy League schools but Harvard University.
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Posse has similarly grown in popularity from the time it started offering scholarships in 1989. It takes a wide pool of students, culls them down in an evaluation process and matches them with a participating college on a ranked list. But unlike QuestBridge, the scholarship isn’t need-based and seniors are nominated on the grounds of demonstrating leadership in their schools, families or communities. Full tuition and fees are covered, still a significant help despite not being the full cost of attendance.
It’s also regional. Students rank schools on a list limited to the area they’re from, so while more than 50 institutions partner with Posse, students from Houston choose from five: Bryn Mawr College, Carleton College, Colby College, Texas A&M University and Vanderbilt University.
Payton Pinkard, a senior at Young Women’s College Prep, stretches with her club volleyball team on Monday, Jan. 29, 2024 in Katy.
Elizabeth Conley/Staff Photographer
“A lot of students haven’t thought about Vanderbilt or Bryn Mawr,” said Deborah Bial, Posse’s president and founder. “But there are students who are brilliant and talented and capable, who we should be finding and should be connecting so they do get onto the radar screen of the institution.”
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The application process is intense for both programs, occurring earlier in the school year than most students apply for college. Students who apply through “early decision” usually have an early November deadline and are only able to submit to one school because of the binding contract. Applicants for match programs apply to the scholarships even sooner, and then go through the college’s application process. QuestBridge finalists must submit enough supplemental essays to cover each school on their list.
Posse, QuestBridge and similar programs are considered relatively successful because they foster a combination of factors that lead to high retention and graduation rates, said Stella M. Flores, associate professor of higher education and public policy at the University of Texas at Austin. (Posse reports a 90% graduation rate among scholarship recipients; QuestBridge does not appear to publish its data.)
“These are programs that place students in generally pretty selective schools, which means they tend to select from a pretty higher achieving pool of students,” Flores said. “The catch is that they come with a lot of financial support, they usually have some coaching, and they usually have these financial support-plus (benefits). And the ‘plus’ is the secret sauce.”
At Posse, she said, it’s having your “posse” — a small group of students who are also in the program and form a supportive community. QuestBridge is especially known for its mentorship and alumni network, Flores said.
QuestBridge officials did not respond to requests for comment, but Rice officials who work with the organization say their internal analyses show the students graduating at similar rates as other first-generation and limited-income student populations at the private institution. And Texas A&M officials who work with Posse said they have seen the benefits year after year.
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“Access to full tuition and fees, and such a large network of not only Aggies but also Posse alum, I think that really helps them tremendously,” said Theondre Peoples, Texas A&M’s Posse Foundation program coordinator for the Office of Student Success.
Payton Pinkard, a senior at Young Women’s College Prep, gets ready for practice with her club volleyball team on Monday, Jan. 29, 2024 in Katy.
Elizabeth Conley/Staff Photographer
Payton Pinkard, a senior at Young Women’s College Prep practices with her club volleyball team on Monday, Jan. 29, 2024 in Katy.
Elizabeth Conley/Staff Photographer
Payton Pinkard, a senior at Young Women’s College Prep, stretches with her club volleyball team on Monday, Jan. 29, 2024 in Katy.
Elizabeth Conley/Staff Photographer
Payton Pinkard, a senior at Young Women’s College Prep practices with her club volleyball team on Monday, Jan. 29, 2024 in Katy.
Elizabeth Conley/Staff Photographer
Pinkard wasn’t thrilled by any of the five partner schools in Posse’s Houston program, but she chose to see the process through to the end. She’s the only child of a single mother whose earnings place them in a middle income bracket — she doesn’t expect as much federal financial aid as she anticipates she will need.
“She’s going to be the sole provider to pay for my college,” Pinkard said. “I don’t want all of that responsibility on her.”
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A teacher at Young Women’s College Preparatory had nominated Pinkard for Posse in late spring, putting faith in her leadership at the top-ranked school. She’s the class president, for one, but she also plays varsity and club volleyball, has an internship at an oil and gas company and is a member of National Honor Society and her chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers.
Payton Pinkard, right, a senior at Young Women’s College Prep, practices with her club volleyball team on Monday, Jan. 29, 2024 in Katy.
Elizabeth Conley/Staff Photographer
Pinkard wants to study electrical engineering, and Posse matched her to A&M, which would have the final say in the admissions process. She walked into her finalist interview knowing she would get a good education in College Station but feeling unsure whether the student culture was a fit. She wasn’t sure whether she would be supported as a Black woman in a STEM major. Black women made up less than 1% of A&M’s College of Engineering in fall 2023.
A few other Black students were finalists, too, and some of them made Pinkard feel more at ease. One said they knew their post-college job opportunities would be ample because of the massive Aggie network, and someone else said they wanted to help bring diverse perspectives to the campus.
The students themselves were what sold Pinkard on the Posse experience. She would get to continue on and become friends with a group of people who truly wowed her. The scholarship isn’t need-based, but many of the students there had overcome significant hardships. Getting to know them was eye-opening, and she got through the next few hours of questioning feeling grateful to have had the opportunity.
“When I walked out, I was like, ‘You know what, I may not get this scholarship, but I’m glad I just met those people,’” she said.
While financial status isn’t considered in Posse, officials said the program still draws a diverse set of students based on merit alone. QuestBridge is income-based, and students who received the scholarship said they believe it opened doors to higher education that they didn’t think was possible.
Michelle Do, a senior at Harmony School of Innovation in Sugar Land, said her parents encouraged her to use the QuestBridge program to apply out-of-state because they felt she deserved the chance to explore. She is a caretaker for her ailing father, and she was tempted to stay closer to home, a tendency of low-income students that scholars believe contributes to lower graduation rates due to the difficulty of juggling responsibilities. Do, who is 18, landed the scholarship to Emory University’s nursing program in Georgia.
“QuestBridge isn’t the only way. A lot of times for low-income students, if you’re in-state, you get free tuition anyways or a lot of financial aid,” she said. “This was my opportunity to pursue not only a higher education for free, but meet new people and experience the full college life.”
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Estimates place 20% to 40% of high school seniors as “loan averse,” or displaying an unwillingness to take on debt for college. Additionally, students have been able to rely less on loans as more scholarships and grants have become available, according to federal data.
Brent Joseph Evans, associate professor of public policy and higher education at Vanderbilt University, said the main concern with loan aversion comes when people underinvest in higher education. Students don’t always realize the mechanics of student loans or understand that the payoff of higher education is good, and they might delay enrollment, enroll part time instead of full time, shoot below their potential, or work for pay during college as a result, he said.
“Loan aversion is also related very clearly to the information and knowledge that students have,” Evans said. “If you’re in high school and you have to make the borrowing decision then, you might not be aware of all the benefits of the student loan processes … so you don’t make the investment decision up front.”
QuestBridge estimates that every year, about 30,000 “outstanding” high school students from low-income backgrounds are qualified to attend top colleges, but over 80% don’t apply to even one selective school. Programs like QuestBridge and Posse help some students tackle the underinvestment problem: Naim, one of Do’s classmates, said he considered going to community college if he didn’t get the QuestBridge scholarship to Duke.
Flores, of UT-Austin, said she agrees that the programs are great for creating access to selective schools, which are known to carry higher earning potential. But she cautioned that the programs don’t touch a much wider population of students who need access the most, and programs for students who aren’t as high-achieving remain less resourced.
“The students who really need the information about how to go to college, those are the ones that don’t even know that they can apply for financial aid,” she said. “So by the time we get to the students who are hoping to apply for a selective program like QuestBridge, Posse, you’re already talking about the students who have had access.”
QuestBridge this year received more than 20,800 applications and matched with 2,242 finalists, its highest number to date, according to the organization. On average, students have a 3.94 unweighted GPA, and 93% were in the top 10% of their class. About 40% of non-matched students get into at least one college partner in regular decision admissions.
Posse reports similarly competitive metrics: This year, more than 16,000 students competed for 890 scholarships. Four in five of its scholars usually go on to become officers of college organizations. They are also diverse, with an alumni network that is 34% Black, 31% Latinx, 11% Asian and 9% white.
“Post the SCOTUS decision on affirmative action, Posse is still finding incredible students from huge diversity of backgrounds,” said Bial, the Posse founder. “But we don’t screen for race, we don’t screen for need, and everything is done through the lens of merit. You get an initiative that cares about access and equity and diversity, but it’s really a leadership initiative that happens to have a very diverse group of students participating.”
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A&M officials said they took 50 total Posse students from Houston, New Orleans, Atlanta, a veterans program and an online program, up from 20 in its first year participating in 2013. At Rice, 77 QuestBridge students were accepted early decision into the class of 2028, up from three students in its first year as a partner in 2003.
“QuestBridge finalists and scholars share incredibly inspiring stories of achievement in the face of daunting challenges,” said Tamara Siler, Rice’s interim co-director of admission. “In addition to being outstanding academic scholars they demonstrate exceptional time-management skills, intellectual spark and curiosity, determination, extensive life skills, strength in character, fortitude and motivation to succeed not only for themselves but for the benefit of their family.”
Abdullahi Adeboye, one of Do’s classmates, viewed the QuestBridge program through the eyes of fate. He lives apart from his mother and father, who are a doctor and business owner in Nigeria, respectively. The currency is worth less there, so matching with the California Institute of Technology was a blessing.
“I always believed that God would put me in the best place possible,” Adeboye, 18, said. “I was, like, whatever happens, happens. And plus, it’s free tuition at school.”
Another route
Pinkard heard back from Posse one day after her interview. She didn’t get the scholarship.
“A little bit of me was kind of relieved, but then also sad, just because, again, the financial aspect,” she said. “I wouldn’t have had to worry about anything.”
Payton Pinkard, a senior at Young Women’s College Prep, practices with her club volleyball team on Monday, Jan. 29, 2024 in Katy.
Elizabeth Conley/Staff Photographer
She faced some of the self-doubting questions that come with rejection, and then the realization that her mother might have to shoulder more of the burden of her education. The teen called her mom, who reassured her and let her know how impressive it was that she made it so far in the process, going from a group of more than a thousand students in Houston to a couple dozen.
Pinkard is now waiting for final acceptances and financial aid offers to roll in, and in the meantime, she’s applying to every scholarship she can. The goal is not to take out any loans if she can help it.
“When it comes to applying for scholarships, I think at times it’s like a robot,” she said. “I copy my essays, paste them, and I just move on. And then my mom and my godmother are like religiously sending me a scholarship every day.”
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She’s also getting more excited about some of the colleges in front of her. Pinkard has looked deeper into what each school and engineering program offers minority students, and she is interested in playing volleyball at the collegiate level, maybe at a place she can walk on.
Without Posse, she still has options.
