For the fourth time in six years, Kingfi sher High School has a finalist for the prestigious QuestBridge Match Scholarship program.

Senior Brayden Osterholt was named a finalist for the scholarship match program, it was announced by KHS on Monday.

QuestBridge is a national nonprofit that connects the nation’s most exceptional youth from lower-income families with leading institutions of higher education.

Finalists are able to rank up to 15 colleges in Questbridge’s network to be “matched” – admitted early with a Match Scholarship – to the college that appears highest on their list that also wants to match with them.

Those who “match” with a college or university are notified on Dec. 1 and will receive a full four-year scholarship.

Finalists who do not match or choose not to rank colleges can use the Quest-Bridge application to apply to college partners through other early and regular decision opportunities.

That’s the path Osterholt chose. “Instead of doing the match program, Brayden chose to do the ‘regular decision’ application so he’d have a little more wiggle room on choosing a college,” said KHS counselor Paula Leffingwell.

“That means he won’t find out until spring which college he’s accepted into, but can still receive a very generous financial aid package that will meet 100% of his demonstrated financial need.” While he is still researching colleges, Osterholt’s top choices so far are Yale University, Colorado College, Dartmouth College, Duke University and University of Virginia.

Kingfisher’s McCall Sinclair was not only a finalist in 2020, but chosen as a match and opted to attend the University of Virginia. The life of that scholarship was valued at more than $240,000.

Jorden Beck was a match last year and chose Notre Dame, which was valued at more than $300,000.

Grace Sinclair was a finalist in 2022.

In 2024, out of over 25,500 applications, 7,288 students were selected as National College Match Finalists.

“Finalists exhibit outstanding academic achievement and qualify financially,” noted Leffingwell.