So just recently found the Scattergram tool for D20’s high school but had some questions about how you have interpreted and used the information most effectively:
Can you confirm that the GPA shown includes all 4 years of the kids who applied to that college?
The standardized test scores only show 1 score, I assume that is the highest one setting score (i.e. not composite or super scored)?
How many years back does the data go?
How accurate do you think the information is?
Is there any way to know the acceptance rates each year by EA/ED versus RD for your HS?
Any other information on Naviance you find helpful, for example, like talking with the GC to interpret the results e.g. little suzy who got into Stanford last year was the top 5 US junior tennis player, etc..
I can help with a few of your questions. The number of years tracked depends on the high school. They don’t all use the same figure. You can find that info right in the scattergram. I think ours goes back 3 years. We found it to be very accurate when using the compare to students at your school option. There were some small LACs that didn’t have a scattergram because too few students from my daughter’s high school had applied. Our GC was very helpful in those circumstances. She could look up a school in her database and tell us the stats of any student(s) that had applied and if they were accepted, waitlisted, or denied. I would assume the GPA would be for all four years. Not sure about the SAT/ACT scores.
For the school comparison Scattergram, I believe it is based on information entered by your own guidance department. You should ask them what they use for GPA and scores. Our school used the superscore number since that was accepted by most schools. Ours also differentiated between EA, ED and RD with different colors on the chart.
1)yes all 4 years GPA, weighted only (and weighted GPA only includes core classes)
2)Yes only one score, not superscore. We can select PSAT, SAT or ACT results (so if student took all 3, can choose which to select). Once your student gets ACT or SAT results, no need to use PSAT anymore
3)Our Naviance shows 3 years of results, there is no way to only look at 1 or 2, which is frustrating with the rapid changes in admissions results
I think the info is accurate, but some seniors don’t update results with GC re: waitlist and final decision
5)We have no visibility to ED/EA vs RD, which is a significant missing piece
6)Comparing GPA/Test results is only one piece of the puzzle for most colleges, and Naviance is missing legacies, athletic commits, essays, ECs, work and research experience, etc. Obviously those factors significantly impact admissions decisions, so Naviance is limited in its utility. Some GCs can add important information on a school by school basis, so definitely reach out to them as appropriate. For example, our high school is 900-1,100/class, but relatively few kids go to elite LACs, and many of those who do are recruited athletes. So Naviance can be misleading at the school level due to small sample size and the fact that most of the admitted students were hooked.
Accuracy depends on the school. At our private HS it was very accurate. GCs created that culture - info had to be submitted to them and had to be input before senior qualified for senior activities and graduation. They had training sessions on Naviance for students early on and scheduled time/deadlines to have certain things done. We used it a lot. It’s really up to the school to make Naviance as valuable as it can be. You can ask the GC how much importance they put on it and how accurate it is.
It would be helpful if high schools made separate “colleges” in Naviance for situations where selectivity varies by ED/RD or by division/major. A Naviance plot that includes all applicants to UCB that is mostly L&S applicants may not be very helpful to a student applying to UCB for the EECS major. Similarly, a Naviance plot that includes all applicants to Chicago would not be as useful as separate ones for Chicago ED 1 versus Chicago ED 2 versus Chicago EA versus Chicago RD.
Our Naviance appeared to be accurate. It’s a very large school, so some mistakes probably don’t make a huge difference. At the time it included three years of data. I don’t think you could tell from the Scattergram which dots were EA or ED, but if you went to a link to the college - it listed the range of SAT scores and GPA for the early admissions vs the regular ones. We found it quite accurate. My kids got merit money when their scores were well above the green dot area. My younger son got into a couple of schools where is GPA was not within the main green cloud - he may even have set a low point for one College - but his SAT reading score was very high and I think his teacher recommendations were excellent. I think some of his essay were really good too.
I asked the guidance counselor about our Stanford scores there weren’t many data points and the only two students who’d been accepted had surprising low scores and GPAs. B+ to A- students scores in the 600s. It turned out they were both recruited athletes, both URMs and one of them also had a political connection that may or may not have made a difference. I figured my son would be one of the many top students that Stanford would not accept and that’s just what happened. Their loss. Those kids end up at Harvard, Yale, Princeton and MIT instead. (Or other fine universities.)
I think the GPA is at the time of application (or end of junior year) and is not updated to include senior year grades (at least not 2nd semester senior year). Weighted GPA was used.
I thought it was accurate and really showed how difficult it is for even the best students to get into the super elite colleges. I also found the “overlaps” feature helpful and the data on lowest GPA/test scores for students admitted ED vs regular. Ours showed 5 years of data.
One thing that was not entirely clear to me was that some students that applied ED elsewhere withdrew their applications to other schools, even though they applied. The number of applications did not always match the number of data points.
Your questions would need to be answered by your HS guidance counselor. I don’t think there is one answer to your questions (ex. how far back data goes, date of GPA, etc.) that would be correct for every HS. Like many things, Naviance is only as good as the data that has been input into it.
I can tell you that in our HS the GPA was as of the end of junior year, the standardized test was the highest score, the data went back 3 years, and no information was made available for any college that had under ten applicants. I also know that at our HS the guidance counselors had a more detailed version of Naviance that could isolate things like ED applicants, athletic recruits etc. – when my D was looking to apply ED to a college her guidance counselor compared her academic stats to other ED applicants.