Printer Friendly Version - A QuestBridge Match: Zuniga Wins Full Scholarship to Stanford

Branford’s Kevin Zuniga will soon become the first member of his family to attend college. The Branford High School senior has just won a full, four-year scholarship to Stanford University through a national non-profit college match program, Questbridge. Photo Courtesy Kevin Zuniga

In the fall, Kevin Zuniga will become the first member of his family to attend college. The Branford High School (BHS) senior has just won a full, four-year scholarship to Stanford University through a national non-profit college match program, QuestBridge.

And that’s not all. According to QuestBridge, Kevin, 17, is among the largest number of nationwide students to date — 1,755 — to win one of this year’s full scholarship matches among 48 top-notch college partners. Kevin’s quest began as one of 17,900 applicants. He went on to be selected among 5,613 finalists vying to win a QuestBridge College Match Scholarship in 2022.

Match Scholarships are part of a generous financial aid package provided by the college, covering the full cost of attendance, including tuition, room and board, books and supplies, and travel expenses. Eighty percent of this year’s recipients will be the first generation in their families to attend a four-year college in the United States.

QuestBridge Class of 2022 scholarship winners have an average unweighted GPA of 3.94, with 94 percent in the top 10 percent of their graduating class. Ninety-four percent come from households with an annual income under $65,000. Eighty-eight percent qualify for free or reduced-price school meals.

The oldest of five kids, Kevin is the son of parents who immigrated from Ecuador. They did not receive the benefit of a high school education. Kevin says his mom has always tried to inspire him to do his absolute academic best.

“I would say that I’ve always been an ambitious student. I really give thanks to my mom for that.”

Due to family circumstances, his mom’s family couldn’t pay the fees required for her high school education in Ecuador, so she was only able to complete a middle school education before she came to America at age 18, he says.

“She always told me, since I was little, how lucky I am to be able to go to public school and to have a good education; and how much I could do in life if I continued my education,” says Kevin.

Kevin has attended Branford Public Schools his entire life. The BHS senior is currently president of the BHS Honor Society; he also played varsity soccer for BHS. Math is his favorite subject. In his junior year, Kevin was designated the BHS Mathematics Department’s top student for his outstanding work in an AP statistics class, where Kevin was the only junior in a class of seniors. He also was the recipient of a $1,500 academic award in his junior year.

This year, Kevin is taking AP calculus and AP computer science, among his other subjects. He plans to major in mathematics at Stanford and is interested in finance.

Last year, Kevin and a friend were touring Wesleyan University (Middletown) when his friend’s mom, Connie Evans, asked a question.

“Connie asked one of the tour guides what I could do as someone high-achieving, low-income, to be able to pay for a good college, private institution. They mentioned QuestBridge, so I looked into it,” says Kevin.

“When I saw a full, four-year scholarship, I thought, ‘This is a very interesting thing that I can apply for.’”

As Kevin learned, Wesleyan is among QuestBridge’s 48 college partners; as are other top liberal arts colleges such as Amherst, Pomona, and Carleton; as well as exceptional research universities such as Duke, Princeton, Stanford, UChicago, and Yale.

“I almost didn’t apply to the program because the one school I wanted to apply to, Harvard, is not a part of QuestBridge! But then I took a look at what schools are competing with Harvard, and I saw that Stanford was one of them and was a part of QuestBridge.”

Kevin adds he also liked what he saw in what Stanford has to offer, including its math programs and student perspective.

“It looked like they were students who were just enjoying learning and not competing against each other.”

In doing his research, Kevin also learned about QuestBridge’s College Prep Scholars program, which can serve as a lead-in to the college application process.

“It was to better prepare me for college and also to get any benefits, like help from them to apply for college, whether it was doing it through their program or the Common App,” says Kevin.

The Common Application is a one-time undergraduate college admission application most juniors will complete and submit on their way to applying for the school of their choice. It’s accepted by over 1,000 colleges and universities.

Kevin was accepted to QuestBridge’s College Prep Scholars program, which he undertook in his junior year. He definitely feels it increased his chances among those competing to win a QuestBridge national match scholarship. Applications for QuestBridge’s College Prep Scholars program opens in early February each year.

Toward the summer of his junior year, Kevin also attended, via Zoom, a college partner conference hosted by QuestBridge. It provided links to visit with admission officers from all 48 college partners.

“I could listen to people ask questions and the admission officer answer questions, “says Kevin.

When the time came to submit his Match Scholarship application through QuestBridge, Kevin was ready to rank his top college partner choices as part of the application process. He ranked Stanford as his first choice. Next were UPenn, UChicago, Princeton, and Brown.

After he completed his application by the Nov. 1 deadline, “...I had a month of waiting, and then I found out Dec. 1 whether I was accepted or not,” says Kevin.

He says there was plenty of second-guessing going on during that period of time.

“It was very stressful because the way the national match program works, they give you 15 schools to rank, but I only ranked five. I was really nervous about that — I thought maybe I should have ranked a lot more schools [so] at least I’d get a full four-year scholarship to some college! I was just worried that I messed up and my parents would have to pay a lot of money for me to go to school.”

In December, the word came down: Kevin was in at Stanford. One of the first things he did was send QuestBridge an intent photo celebrating his match scholarship, which he’s also shared with The Sound.

Now that he’s headed off to college, thanks to the remarkable opportunity provided through QuestBridge, Kevin hopes to help more Branford students and families learn about Questbridge and its programs. He plans to reach out to the BHS guidance counseling office.

“Once this semester is done, I’m planning on talking with my counselor about promoting it a little more to juniors to apply to the College Prep Scholars program and also to make them a little more aware of the National Match program as an option, rather than just the Common App.”