I have a question my daughter just brought up, when looking at Naviance are the GPA’s posted the final GPA’s applicants had when they were accepted or denied to said universities, end of year GPA’s, or the GPA’s they had when they applied? My daughter seems to think they are year end GPA’s so she’s a more favorable candidate for many of her schools than it looks like right now? She’s in 4 AP classes and 3 college classes this semester with so far straight A’s. Could that be right?
Her argument for this is our high school has had one student ever accepted to Harvard so we can see his scores in Naviance and at our school it would be mathematically impossible to be over a 4.7 without senior year, including senior spring grades.
That depends on the final grade load the HS performs, which is usually midyear (Dec/Jan). If they do a final senior year load, it rarely affects the GPA much. As far as her argument, Naviance only compares test scores and GPA. For ultra selective schools like Harvard, the shape of the scatterplot matters a lot more. Those schools typically have a few acceptances in the upper right quadrant and many rejections and provide very little information beyond a minimum GPA/SAT(ACT) are. Clearly there are other factors which explain admissions. Other schools like Rice and Vanderbilt have much more defined areas where nearly everyone is accepted above a certain GPA/SAT(ACT) band.
I think I proved that she’s right, her school at least, is reporting year end grades in Naviance. As we’ve only ever had one kid go to Harvard from our high school I can find him in Naviance. His GPA is reported as 4.7+ and there’s a newspaper article about him in June reporting the same GPA after graduation. Kids in AP classes can go up quite a lot senior year, my daughter will go up .2 or so between now and graduation. At any rate, the GPA’s we’re comparing her junior year end grades to are actually senior year end grades, making me think she’s right and it’s a bit skewed.
And just to clarify, my daughter isn’t looking at Harvard… she’s going to graduate around a 4.1 GPA, she’s saying that I need to look at where she’ll end up on the scatter plots, not where she is now before any senior year grades.
The Naviance scattergrams at our HS show the GPA as of the end of the junior year, and it does not get adjusted later. Ask the college counselor at your HS.
This is a great question and one I was thinking about also.
There are many options in Naviance which means that data can be synced from the school’s SIS (student information system) or uploaded manually at intervals using spreadsheet templates
from the Naviance Administrator manual: http://www.sfps.info/DocumentCenter/View/7808
So I guess the answer is “it depends on when and how the data is connected”. If the data is synced it should be close to real time, which means it is likely updated beyond the application submission and acceptance date. If it is done manually, there would be a date where the admins stop updating the information – but they could of course choose to update at the end of the year.
This is all speculation on my part!
I’d talk to the HS guidance counselor to understand exactly how the data points are calculated at your HS.
Our high school has over 3,000 students, so I’m going to go out on a limb here and say it’s all automated. Those of you that are only updated through junior year end I’m assuming don’t have any 4.6 or 4.7 GPA’s in Naviance then as that wouldn’t even be possible. This makes me look at those GPA averages a bit differently, especially for the UC and CSU apps that go out in November, naviance is showing an entire year of grades that weren’t used in admissions decisions.
At my daughter’s HS, it’s definitely the final GPA. I spoke with the guidance counselor. Other schools do all sorts of things. It seems like the individual school’s methodology should be there for everybody to see…rather than making everybody guess or bother the GCs.
It should be clear to all what we’re looking at. I had thought of Naviance as being the most accurate barometer because it was comparing apples to apples, kids from her school with weighted GPA’s calculated just like hers, it seemed a pretty good indicator, at least for larger local universities with a lot of data. Now knowing those GPA’s are inflated by a year’s more grades, I’m thinking she’s a more competitive applicant at some of these schools than I’d thought and than her counselor had indicated. It annoys me a bit, her counselor had discouraged certain schools, “oh their average accepted GPA is a 4.09, you’re only a 3.91”… um, but graduation she’ll be over a 4.1.
our hs shows only unweighted averages, at the time of application
Our HS shows weighted averages at the time of application. As you can see from responses here, it sounds like it’s different everywhere. If you’re confident in your approach, you have your answer. If you’re not, maybe call the GC if you feel it will help you with your decisions about where to apply. Good luck!
Honestly, if our counselors are telling kids schools are a reach or a match based on what’s in Naviance, I’m betting they don’t even know how it’s set up, at least not all of the counselors. I would have never noticed it if my daughter hadn’t picked up on the fact that there were GPA’s too high to be pre senior year.
One of the posters up here mentioned their shows unweighted grades, I would find it very hard to search on that criteria. How can you tell the difference between a 4.1, 4.4, 4.6? They could all have similar unweighted GPA’s but would have very different opportunities.
I can tell the difference because our school does not weight grades until senior year and ALL of the grades on our naviance are ALL below 100. Our Val and Sal always have scores around 103/104. I looked at the schools our val and sal went to, shows highest grades of 98. so, yep, comfirmed with gc-UW grades on naviance
Naviance has to be updated after May 1 because that’s the only way the counselors can enter who went where. This charts show this information by the type of square. It’s also in the school’s “School Stats” info under the line “Attending.” So these are GPA’s and scores updated after May 1, most likely including final grades.
Naviance can be skewed by lack of reportage. If your kid does not tell the counsellor of any changes, it won’t be in there.
Many schools also do not input info for when a small number of students applied, to protect their privacy. My daughter’s college is empty. It looks like no one applied there in her year. But she’s attending.
That stats tab has a lot of good info breakdown, thank you!
I’m looking back as the parent of a 2016 grad, and his end-of-junior-year GPA is in there. I don’t think the GPA’s have to be updated just because where the kids ended up is.
ETA: Not saying yours wasn’t updated @socalmom007. Just clarifying that I don’t think GPAs have to be updated just because results were.
That makes more sense @Momofmrb, at least then your kids aren’t getting discouraged comparing themselves with end of senior year stats.
Well, it depends on the trajectory. 