<p>I'm sure that many users here have heard of Naviance, so I won't go into what it is. I just wanted to know how reliable it is. I was looking at a scattergram of Berkeley, CMU, Georgia Tech, Tufts, UMichigan, UIllinois, University of Notre Dame and Northwestern for the past 5 years at my school, and I see that the cluster of green dots is around where I am. (I looked at Columbia and Cornell but it was too depressing) Does this mean I have a good chance of getting in, because these colleges have looked at my school and seen that some of these students were the right material? I understand that EC's also play a part, but assuming that mine are good, what would you say?</p>
<p>If the school is inputting all data and it is not self-reported, and the school has had enough applicants to a particular college, Naviance should give you a good rough idea if you’re in the ballpark. If the information is self-reported, it may leave out the number of people rejected from a college. (This happened at my kids’ school. Students used to report the information and they would more readily report acceptances than denials. When the school started tracking it, the number of denials went up.) </p>
<p>Naviance not only doesn’t take ecs into account, it doesn’t look at financial need, alumni relationship, demographic information, interest shown or courses taken. </p>
<p>Still, it is the most useful information source I’ve seen for knowing if you are in the right ballpark for a school.</p>
<p>I agree, but would add a caveat. When a school radically changes its admissions policies (eg Northwestern or Case Western, both in 2011), it will take several years to show up in Naviance. But otherwise, yes, if the data is school-reported, it’s a very useful tool.</p>
<p>Yes Naviance is very helpful but certainly not perfect. Last year our son was a HS senior and we ran across two issues with Naviance that could definitely affect the accuracy of information that is presented to other students. First off our son never took the SAT in HS - he was an ACT kid and had very strong scores. When I looked at his info on the graphs which pair test scores and GPA it was accurate for the ACT however the SAT page also had some bogus score inputed for him. How could he have an SAT score when he never took the test?? The GC did some research and said her understanding is that Naviance took his 10th grade PSAT score (taken when he was 14 years old) and used that as his SAT score for the graph. Huh?!?! Other students looking at that SAT graph would see a kid with a high GPA/mediocre SAT score who was accepted into some very competitive colleges. My second concern is how Naviance handles info relative to binding ED. For example our son was accepted ED in February and then had to pull outstanding apps at 3 other colleges. Are those other 3 schools reported as rejections, waitlists, or hopefully not inputed into the system at all? Not sure how they handle that one.</p>
<p>Naviance is usually good for telling you whether or not you have a shot at that school and also if a school is a safety school for you. All that naviance shows is GPA and say score; you don’t know of any possible hooks, outstanding ECS, etc that may have got some applicants accepted.</p>
<p>I agree with cortana. Pure stats are only useful for determining the extremes–schools where you basically don’t even have a chance and schools where pigs will fly before you’ll get rejected.</p>
<p>I don’t think its reliable at all. I see Naviance as more of a communication tool between the student and the guidance office, rather than a website for researching schools.</p>
<p>Annasdad - how did northwestern and case change their admissions policies? My son is interested in both schools.</p>
<p>Also, does anyone know what gpa’s they’re using? Is it the final gpa of the student - 4 years, gpa going into senior year, gpa at the middle of senior year? Because students generally take more AP classes senior year, their gpas may go up.</p>
<p>Amazon, I wonder about that too. I don’t see how some oh the GPS numbers on ours can be achieved by the end of junior year. Interestingly ours just updated a week ago. So, my D has a new GPA and the stats include the acceptances (and denials) of the seniors who just graduated. Makes me assume the GPA they show must be that with which they finished based on the way it updated for my kids. I am planning to ask too. Seems less relevant if you’re comparing to the final GPA and not what was on the application. May be less of an issue with mid-range schools, but for the top 20 type schools, I would think it will matter?</p>
<p>I did a rough back of the envelope calculation and my son’s gpa will probably not go up all that much at the end of senior year so it doesn’t really matter for us. I think they must use end of senior year data even though it’s not as helpful as end of junior year would be for potential applicants. I don’t think the colleges use naviance, they probably have their own algorithms for determining what gpas they want from what schools.</p>
<p>End of junior year would be best, but it’s still a nice tool to have.</p>
<p>Naviance is a great tool for estimating your probability of admission. It’s probably the best tool. Though remember, when you are done, all you have is an estimate of a probability. </p>
<p>Only an acceptance letter is a sure thing.</p>