- December 19, 2025
It’s not often that Flagler Palm Coast High School senior Syed Haider will just freeze. But that’s what happened on the morning of Dec. 1, when Haider saw that the names of the winners of the QuestBridge National College Match scholarships had been released — hours before the announcement was scheduled.
Haider is one of 2,550 students nationwide who received the QuestBridge National Match which connects high-achieving high school seniors from lower income backgrounds with full four-year scholarships to the nation’s top colleges. The scholarships are worth over $325,000 and covers everything including tuition, books, room and board and travel.
Haider will be attending Cornell University where he will study biomedical engineering. He knew he was a finalist for the match scholarship in October. Days before the Dec. 1 announcement, he was so excited that some nights he couldn’t sleep. He had ranked four universities — Cornell, MIT, Harvard and Johns Hopkins. If he would be matched to one of them, the scholarship would be binding for that school. He pondered each possibility.
On the morning of the release date, he checked at 9 a.m., just for fun, even though the results were scheduled to be dropped between 3 and 5 p.m.
“I saw it had dropped,” he said.
But for some reason, his anxiety took over and his finger wouldn’t press down on his computer keyboard. He said he waited five, 10 minutes, contemplating whether to open the link or not.
One of my friends opened it for me. And then I saw that I matched. He was just really excited. I basically jumped up and down. At first, it was just disbelief. The first few minutes I was, ‘Did I really make it?
— SYED HAIDER
“One of my friends opened it for me,” he said. “And then I saw that I matched. He was just really excited. I basically jumped up and down. At first, it was just disbelief. The first few minutes I was, ‘Did I really make it? Did I match?’ Because, I wasn't really expecting it. But once it happened, I actually started telling some people during the day, and especially when I got home, I told my parents.”
Haider is an International Baccalaureate student. He is currently ranked No. 1 in FPC’s senior class of 604 with a GPA of 5.4615. He achieved a score of 1520 on his SAT with a perfect 800 on the math section.
Bella Giuliano, FPC’s IB program coordinator, has taught Haider since he was a sophomore and said she’s watched him grow as a student and a leader in the community, which she said is something she’ll cherish forever.
“I'm excited to watch him thrive at Cornell and see where he is in 10 years,” Guiliano said. “Because I'm sure it'll be somewhere amazing, and he'll be changing the world. So, I'm just excited.”
IB guidance counselor Phil DeAugustino and Haider’s other teachers are equally as excited. Haider said he is grateful to all of them as well as his Take Stock in Children mentor, Jared Dawson. His IB math teacher Scott Warren, biology teacher Carrie Schell and history teacher Steve Von Glahn wrote letters of recommendation to go with his QuestBridge application.
Haider included in the application an excerpt of his 4,000-word extended essay, an IB requirement. He wrote about GSTP1, an early biomarker for prostate cancer, comparing it to the PSA biomarker. He got interested in biomedical engineering, he said, when his father had a heart attack five years ago when Haider was in the seventh grade.
“He’s doing well now. It’s a happy ending,” he said of his dad. “But when I first saw him in the hospital room, I saw all these machines on him, and I was thinking, how is he being kept alive? I saw all these different devices. Who made these? I looked into it later on, and I found out, biomedical engineers. So I really wanted to know how I could contribute, because I wanted to be able to build and improve on the same devices that helped keep my father alive during that time.”
Haider knows he’s fortunate to receive an QuestBridge National Match. And he wants other high school students of limited means to know that such a scholarship to a top university is available.
Haider has always been a whiz in math and science, but he said his extracurricular activities, including the Mu Alpha Theta math honor society and FPC’s bridge club, have been just as important as his academic achievements in making him the person he is.
“I feel like that’s one of the parts that uplifted my application, being able to show what I learned through all of these experiences,” he said. “Because it really did change who I was from the start to nearly the end of high school.”
