Media Release
January 23, 2024 

Compton High School Senior Jorge Castro recently accepted a full-tuition scholarship to Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, courtesy of the QuestBridge National College Match Scholarship.

Dartmouth College is in the Ivy League and is ranked number 18 in the nation by U.S. News 2024 Best National Universities. Castro is excited to be going to the leading institution.

“It’s still setting in – I’m going to be able to go to a top college,” he says. “I’m going to be able to get the most out of my education. The fact that it’s a full scholarship, I think about it every single day.”

Castro was interested in Dartmouth because of its strong engineering program. “I really like engineering,” he said. “It’s my passion. Since I was a little kid, I knew I wanted to major in engineering.”

To fuel his engineering interest, Castro was active in the Robotics Club at Compton High School. “The one thing I really focused on and poured all my passion into was the Robotics Club. We have a lot of meet ups, competitions, and have won a lot of trophies.”

After college, he hopes to return to Southern California and start his own prosthetics company. “I want to start my own business and provide people of low income with opportunities for prosthetics. My mom has diabetes. When you have diabetes, there’s a high risk of losing limbs. People also lose limbs in accidents every day. So, I want to make a business that has a program that allows low income families to be able to afford prosthetics.”  

In contrast to living in sunny and warm Southern California, Castro heard that Dartmouth College has its own ski resort and hopes to take advantage of the opportunity to learn how to ski since that’s not something he’s been able to do in his city.

Castro is a product of the Compton Unified School District. He grew up in Compton and attended Dickison Elementary School, then went to Davis Middle School, and continued at Compton High School. 

QuestBridge is a national nonprofit that aims to help high-achieving students from low-income backgrounds attend the nation’s best colleges and to support them to achieve success in their respective careers and communities.

This year, out of more than 20,800 applicants, QuestBridge selected 6,683 Finalists to be considered for the QuestBridge National College Match Scholarship (Match Scholarship). QuestBridge’s 50 college partners matched with 2,242 Finalists, who are recognized as Match Scholarship Recipients. This is the highest number of Match Scholarship Recipients to date for QuestBridge.

The Match Scholarship is made up of a generous financial aid package provided by the college that covers the full cost of attendance, including tuition, housing and food, books and supplies, and travel expenses.

Jorge is another Compton Success Story.