Naviance: Test score ranges

Applying to College
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We are just starting to use Naviance for building a college application list.

In looking at the SAT ranges for “top schools”, it seems that there is a much broader range in the national middle 50% of enrolled students at many of these schools.

The reason I mention this is that on many of the Chance Me posts in CC, commentators often tell students who score lower than 1500 that their SAT is too low for these schools. However, the Naviance data seems to suggest a much wider range of scores.

Am I missing something? Before investing too much time in Naviance, I just wanted to understand how “good” the data is.

Any guidance greatly appreciated. TIA.

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I am not sure where Naviance pulls it data from, but it could be dated. It’s ok to use Class of 2024 data, but I would also look at the class of 2025 if it’s out there. Admitted data is better than matriculated data, if it’s available (check school website and school newspaper websites for admitted data).

There is a great deal of nuance in the decision to send scores or not. Depends on selectivity of the school and their predisposition towards scores (even if TO), student’s stats/rigor, intended major, AP scores, if the applicant is hooked (URM, first gen, low income), what a given college communicates, etc.

Some colleges tell applicants to only send test scores if they are at the median or above (so median would be in the middle of the mid-50% range). Colleges in this group include Tulane and Conn College. Of course this will cause mid-50% score ranges to rise, and quickly, which we saw with class of 2025 data and are seeing with ED/EA data for class of 2026.

Some colleges really prefer scores even if they are TO, such as Michigan, CMU, and Auburn.

Many guidance/college counselors also are generally advising students to only send scores if the score is at the median or above, but again nuance is required. It is not a one size fits all recommendation.

Bottom line: ask yourself whether the score strengthens the application. If it does not (or is neutral) there’s probably little reason to send. With that said, neutral scores should go to the schools that prefer scores. Ask your HS GC for their opinion.

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Remember that Naviance will be showing data from your high school only. Sample size matters. The number of years of history matters. But so does whether or not students were legacies or recruited athletes. It is also possible that you are seeing scores that weren’t reported to colleges given that most schools were TO last year.

Because each school customizes its own database and has different ways of collecting data, your best bet is to ask your GC about the schools you’re interested in.

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Naviance has a college search function that pulls in data from external sources, like Fiske and Princeton Review, maybe even IPEDs (but I am not exactly sure which sources as it has changed over time). This search function allows students to ID schools that fit their selected criteria. It also categorizes schools but is much to rosy in the categorizations (such as categorizing sub 20% schools as matches for some students).

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Wow! Great stuff here.

As usual, thanks to the CC community for immediately and comprehensively answering my newbie question!

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We found Naviance data on test scores, GPA, and how many students applied/accepted from D’s school to be basically useless.

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I’m actually focusing on the national data, not the school-specific data.

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wow. Really? We found Naviance data to be way more useful.

I agree that you don’t have some info like if kids are legacies or recruited athletes or if they go ED (ours doesn’t show that), but I know our district well enough to be able to guess on that information. D21 knew not to send her scores because kids in her GPA range from our schools got into most of the colleges on her list but her score was lower. Also, our high school has a higher rate of acceptance to some top 30 schools than the overall acceptance rate so we could feel better about D’s chances. Of course, one has to have the whole package for highly ranked colleges but we thought D’s ECs held up to most of the other top students at her high school.

We also know things like only athletes and legacies get accepted to Ivies with some very rare exceptions. It’s good to talk to the guidance counselor to understand the nuances of admissions from your high school. They’ve seen the trends. They can tell you if your student has a good chance or not.

I have a friend whose D is in the neighboring school district. The D is a good student but not stellar, ok ECs. She sees colleges with 10% acceptance rates as reaches but thinks her D has a good chance at sub 25% colleges. I told her no way. Sub 10% is an absolute no and she should look at Naviance and talk to the GC about those sub 25% colleges. It does matter where the student goes to high school.

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Our school district switched to Naviance a couple of years ago and it seems that getting all school & district data in there hasn’t been a major priority. The data definitely is incomplete.

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For national data, I wasn’t able to figure out why data from naviance differs from other sources.

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Ah. I see. Our seniors are called down to the office at the end of the year to make sure they enter all of their info. I’m sure a few slip through the cracks but not many. Still, talk to the GCs. They will have important info on whether your student is competitive for any particular college.

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And I always use colleges’ common data set for test score ranges even though I know it’s enrolled students. It’s better than nothing. As mentioned above, you might be able to google “x college admitted students SAT range” and see if you can find that in school newspapers, etc.

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We found our school specific data most helpful, at least for starting the conversation with the CC (who always had context!)

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Are you looking at the scattergrams that show GPA and test scores from your HS or are you using the search function that pulls national data?

In our experience, our HS data on Naviance was hit and miss. It depended on the college (too many data points vs lots of data points vs few data points) and over how many years the data was collected. As was mentioned above, it also depends on how your school customizes its database.

I know you know this but most of the predictors show two data points (GPA and test scores). With test optional, you’re going to see higher test scores which will skew the data. With test blind, you are only looking at GPA. As much as we feel that GPA and test scores rule the admissions process, there is so much more behind each dot on the graph. The plots don’t show major (CS vs history), socioeconomics, diversity, extra curriculars, leadership, quality of LOR and, most of all, the ability of the student to have their voice heard through their essays.

I do scholarship interviews for a top university. We interview students who are first gen, from a HS or family without a lot of resources who had to work to help support the family and have to compare them to a student who was president of a club in high school, played both club and HS sports for 4 years and whose family traveled extensively which gave the student a greater global perspective. Both students would appear as the same dot on Naviance.

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Naviance, and really, the colleges’ own released ranges, are not very useful. You have to realize that there are larger forces at play here, that are not revealed. For instance, underrepresented minority students who had significantly lower scores (and GPAs) are admitted. The same can go for donor kids, legacies, first gen to college, recruited athletes, or kids with special talents that the school wanted. And then there’s the entire issue of more and more schools going test optional. Not to mention that, although colleges don’t like to admit it, they can also be influenced by the applicant’s ability to pay. I have seen younger siblings of full pay students at very selective schools get accepted with lesser stats - I think that the school figured that if the older sib was full pay, they could safely assume that this one would be, too, so they lowered the bar a little.

For all these reasons, I’m not sure that Naviance is the best place to start one’s search. I’d say that networking is the way to go. Talk to the other parents. Do research on here.
If the student has none of the above-mentioned factors that would increase their likelihood of being accepted at a highly competitive school, I would say that they should be looking at matching the 75th% of test score and GPA, to be considered a match. Consider size of school, location, atmosphere, academics, social scene, climate, etc. to narrow down the search. Don’t forget cost! If the family is not going to qualify for significant financial aid, but cannot/will not pay high tuition, do you really want to set the student up for acceptances that they’d have to decline, due to money? If the student does have one of the above mentioned factors, you probably need to be working through those who have knowledge of how it affects admissions - coaches, teachers, etc.

Old Ivy friend of mine took kid to see all the most selective schools, because they thought that since the kid’s GPA and scores were within the range listed, they were an option. Of course, since the kid had no hooks or spikes, they didn’t get into a single one, and wound up at their state’s flagship, which wasn’t such a terrible thing.

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I’m all for doing research locally to get the scoop on the local high school’s college admissions but, if Naviance is updated correctly, the scattergrams are still helpful. More and more, I think you can just look at GPA though since you don’t know if the scores were sent.

For instance, I can see that D21’s GPA gave her about a 75 percent chance of getting into Boston College versus their overall acceptance rate around 20 percent. No one really goes ED to BC here so those are almost all RD checks on the scattergram.

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And my kid’s Naviance scattergram gave them a ZERO chance of getting into their first choice tippy-top school. Yet they did, because of a huge EC spike not reflected in Naviance. Unfortunately, all the kids with top GPA, perfect SATs, (plus fantastic ECs/awards), didn’t get into any top schools, even though their dot was smack in the upper right hand corner of the scattergram, unless they were URMs.

Naviance would only be useful if that specific person’s hooks or spikes were known, but Naviance won’t even put the person’s data on the scattergram if not many students in the past 5 years have gotten in, because they know that it will “out” that person’s GPA and SAT/ACT.