<p>Mum2Three:
Did you ever find out how to look at Naviance if your school is not signed up? Do you have to sign up?</p>
<p>Your school or your district has to purchase the service. At most schools, you log in to get student-specific data, but some schools allow people to log on as a guest and get general info. Just Google Naviance and a number of schools will pop up that will allow you guest access.</p>
<p>reeinaz: I do have the CC app, but Iām not proficient with it yet. I only have three areas that I really visit; specifically 2 threads and 1 forum, but I canāt maneuver around that well on the app yet.</p>
<p>Also, does anyone know why sometimes I get on CC for 5 minutes and it updates my ālast visitedā time right away, while others it lets me look at āeverythingā before it does that? Makes it hard to keep up as Iām never quite sure what I missed!</p>
<p>D1 is home for fall break; goes back later today. It was nice to do some stuff with everyone home for a few days. </p>
<p>Think D2 and I are going to visit WUSTL (Washington in St. Louis) on the Monday before Thanksgiving, but aside from that things seem to be quiet for her. Yay!</p>
<p>Had a major college talk with ds2. That Naviance data was both encouraging and dream-crushing for him. Data shows that only one kid since our school started Naviance has been accepted to his ādreamā school. One. And dsās GPA is not even close to that kidās, though his SATs might be eventually. After the shock wore off, he rebounded with a āIām getting accepted, too.ā Ah, the optimism of youth.</p>
<p>We also talked about Questbridge and applying to colleges through that program. Heās all in there and even has a school heād go with binding ā argh, the one school that WLād his brother. Iām trying to expand his list a bit because I can see a couple of schools on there now falling off.</p>
<p>Naviance data is an eye opening for me. Only 3 students from our high school last year with CR+M above 1500 and less than 10 students with SAT 1 scores above 2200. All these students have very high GPA and course rigor to be accepted to reach schools. Of course, some acceptances are not shown yet because of single acceptance, like Brown and Harvard. Hopefully they will be showing up this year.</p>
<p>socialdramamamma: My ds asked at school, and they are just using Naviance for the first time this year. His counselor said heād track down login info for him, so weāll wait for that. However, since itās the first year, I donāt hope to get much useable data. Iād like to get a guest login for a comparable public school and look around, but havenāt gotten that accomplished yet.</p>
<p>Visited U of Miami yesterday, we did a day trip so it was a long day. I think D really liked it ā¦she doesnāt show a lot of emotion but did not complain and said she would like to visit again, she wants to see the marine science facilities, when my H returns from the Middle East in the Spring. I liked the school, I thought their open house was very well organized and the professors D did talk to were very engaging.</p>
<p>I only wish they did campus overnights.</p>
<p>I finally read my the school profile for soninazās school. With the weird way his school grades, a straight A transcript translates to only a 3.88, the highest gpa avail. His 3.2 doesnāt seem soooo bad now. But I still have no idea of grade distribution. And his school does NOT rank, which will probably work in his favor. I do like that his school mentioned their <9% acceptance rate. Looking at the Naviance data was equally disappointing and uninformative. Thereās not enough info to be useful but what is there was sobering.</p>
<p>I also read their college application instructions for the class of 2012. It seemed a bit confusing to me as some forms are done electronically and some arenāt. Some forms go to the counselor, some to the office, and some to the advisor. I will def need a spreadsheet for all of that but supposely, Naviance helps keep track of all that? Another good thing I learned is that the counselor recommendations are actually done by the avisors who have been with the same group of students since 9th grade.</p>
<p>2 more weeks left in this grading period and Iām feeling so anxious. Heās on course for a C in English and Physics (if he turns in some missed assignments otherwise itās a D), a B in Precalc and Spanish, and an A in AmHist. His 1st quarter grades are always the worst.</p>
<p>ree, if it was sobering then maybe it was a little informative? Sorry the news wasnāt better. </p>
<p>Are yāall fairly new to Naviance? If so, some schools take a year or two to transition all the paper work. My ds1ās class was the guinea pig, the first year it was an option to submit LORs through Naviance, but some teachers still wanted to go old school, so you just had to know what your particular recommender preferred. It all worked out. I stayed out of that end of it because all those little moving pieces drove me nuts. I prefer to coordinate from 30,000 feet.</p>
<p>Ds is so incredibly overcommitted that I feel like putting my foot down, but heās handling it well (including knowing he has to spend extra time on BC Cal this week) and so Iām just going to let it ride for now. This could be a mistake, but knowing your limitis is a good lesson to learn in HS. Right???</p>
<p>Ree, our school treats grades in a similar fashion. I knowit sounds crazy, but I am not sure of Dās GPA. It isnāt provided, and we have never met with guidance. Overworked and overburdens guidance counselors. I would venture to guess D is also pulling a 3.2 unweighted GPA. Our school also does not rank which the guidance counselors do advise works to the benefit of all but the very tippy top. I wish we had Naviance or some tool (other than CC). </p>
<p>D is really starting to talk about colleges on her own instead of me initiating. She said it seems like that is all her peers are talking about. She is getting hyper focused on grades. Yeah! But really, last year would have been a better time. 
She has reached out to all classes where she is carrying a B in hopes of last minute opportunities to raise her grade to an A. </p>
<p>Soccer should be over by next week. Semi Finals are tonight and a win is anticipated. D is looking forward to an end of the season.</p>
<p>Youdontsayā¦I sympathize with you. D does this to herself all the time. 3rd quarter is when she is most committed due to school musicals and some other committments she has. It is so hard to know when to step in. Is it before or after the imminent breakdown? Good luck!</p>
<p>Well, it looks like S will be trying to take the SAT this Saturday āstand-byā. He did a full practice test (including the essay) with his tutor and did well. She feels that he is ready to take it, so he will shoot for this Saturday as well as keep his test dates in Dec for both the SAT and ACT.</p>
<p>Progress period ends today and his grades look pretty good so farā¦knock on wood.</p>
<p>PRAYING that he can survive the first semester AND get all of the testing done before Track starts. Jr year is the big year for Track recruiting so he will need to have a great Spring if he wants to keep his hopes alive to run D1 in college.</p>
<p>Took D1 to an information session and tour of University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) today, since she only had a half day and it was the last day of the quarter. </p>
<p>We were looking at it because it offers the two things she is most interested in (Secondary Ed and Social Work), would be in state tuition and it has developed quite a good reputation as a real up and coming school. It doesnāt hurt that the M/F ratio is 60/40 as opposed to the other way around, for once! haha</p>
<p>Overall, though, she didnāt get the vibe she was looking for and, even though it is about her preferences, I agreed with her. </p>
<p>Good points:
Large campus
Diverse population, much more so than some other schools weāve seen
The meal we ate was quite good and had some different options: several vegetarian, a gluten free area and a kosher area (for dinner, four days a week.)
Dorm room was large.</p>
<p>Things that didnāt appeal to her:
The architecture: was not the friendly Southern style that appeals most to her. More sterile or āinstitutionalā looking. That being said, there were a couple of seriously awesome looking buildings, like the library and the physics building.
She didnāt feel as though she āfitā with most of the students that she saw.
It had a much stronger ātechā feel/ math feel than a liberal arts feel.</p>
<p>This review is really more subjective than anything, so probably not all that helpful, but it is what it is and we are one step closer to narrowing down the list!</p>
<p><crossposted></crossposted></p>
<p>I visited Dās boarding school last weekend. They had just finished the first quarter and D said she thinks she has 6s (out of 7) in every class except history. Sheās not sure about that one. It could be much lower since she feels like she doesnāt have the background knowledge in 10th century history that the other students bring to the class. This school is soooo casual about grades. Basically, itās ādonāt worry sheās doing fineā from all her teachers. There wonāt be any ārealā grades until the predicted IB results next fall. Apparently, many students are perturbed because the school only allows students with predicted results of at least 40 (out of 45) to apply to Ivies. My D has been trying to tell other students that there are other good choices but many 2nd years are stressed out. After years of being very involved, I am trying to stay out of it.</p>
<p>Vandygrad, have you visited UM college park? It has come up as a fit for D. She is concerned about the size. We have not visited and probably will not until the summer. I was wondering your thoughts if you visited.</p>
<p>Wow, Apollo! The school wonāt ALLOW students to apply to Ivies??? I am so SHOCKED! Their reasoning may be that they want to brag about the percentage of students admitted to the schools they are applying to, but it seems so wrong to make some blanket statement.</p>
<p>These days, thereās no telling what your child might be bringing to the table that would get them admitted over someone with a smidge higher grades. Assuming that a 39 out of 45 is still a good grade of course. My hubby is an alum of an ivy and does interviews, and I can tell you that sometimes thereās something special that grabs admissions officers that makes all the difference.</p>
<p>I am just stunned that this school assumes the right to deny a child the possibility of an Ivy league education.</p>
<p>Agree with mom22. I canāt believe that a HS is acting as a gatekeeper on Ivy ā or any ā apps. Looking at Naviance data for a top 20 school ds is interested in was one outlier. This student had the lowest GPA and SAT score of anyone on the chart, but the school obviously wanted him/her. I canāt imagine our school saying that it didnāt think this kid had a shot so we wonāt let you try.</p>
<p>I think ds is done with the school visits for now. Heās seen all the schools scheduled to come that he is thinking about. Plus, so many of them have been during Calculus and the canāt afford to keep missing that class.</p>
<p>WHERE can you get a CD/walkman? D is signed up to take the SAT II on Saturday (Spanish with Listening). BUT you need a portable cd player. We have one but yesterday when she took a practice test it sometimes skips, or stops playing, etc. Is it possible to buy one? Any ideas where you could get this since I would think they are obsolete? IDEAS</p>
<p>My idea was to build confidence with an easy test (native spanish speaker) because with my son we found out about required SATII when he was a senior and he had to take them with no prep and had to send scores before getting the results. Lucky for him he is a whiz test taker and did fine.</p>
<p>D may not need SAT IIs but what the hayāavoid the panic in fall of senior year if she does apply to SAT II mandatory schoolāā¦and she liked my idea for taking an easy/short SAT first while in hockey season and prep for the big one to take in december or the spring. The cd player thing was a complicationā¦the test is really easy for her but the cd player could muck that up. Any suggestions would be appreciatedā¦yes I did send out email last night to friends and neighbors asking if they had any ancient cd playersā¦</p>
<p>^^^ I would try Radio Shack or Ebayā¦</p>
<p>Since I need it by saturday, Amazon and Ebay are out. Radio shack has several online and apparently one or two types in stores. No radio shack nearby. Apparently Walmart alsoā¦but will have to go to far suburbs (40 minute min drive) to see. Someone suggested the big pharmacies as having outdated electronicsā¦ thanks for suggestionsā¦I was naiveā¦I wsa expecting them to play the cd on a cd player with speakers to all the students in the roomā¦gee whizā¦</p>
<p>I can see a CVS/Wallgreens/Kmart?? having somethingā¦
Good luck!!! Hope it works out :)</p>