<p>@ FOG </p>
<p>You are so right, I said in post #3338 that they should have given this info in late fall/early winter at the earliest… I meant at the latest. August is a perfect time… or why not at the end of sophomore year so they can spend the summer on it?</p>
<p>Again a breeding ground for paper/plastic careers.</p>
<p>@NewHavenCtmom: I love it! You are one of those moms and I am one of those dads! I’ll be up at 5:30 am on Thursday for sure! And I think your concerns about the guidance department are warranted. There are so many choices one can make regarding college in high school. I really think the college counseling should begin in their sophomore year. I don’t think schools should dwell on it, unnecessarily stressing kids out or placing too much emphasis on the “end result” of college, vs. the educational process. But there should be a balance. Meet with them, go over the choices they will face, and educate them on the impact of their decisions.</p>
<p>One thing you may want to do is go on other schools websites, one that is known to be more active in the college counseling process. Someone else mentioned this. For example, if you go to the Harvard-Westlake website, you will multiple sources including books to read, sites to visit, etc. Another example of a quality website for college would be the Boston Latin School.</p>
<p>And now variance and scattergrams. The scattergrams plot previous applicants from your schools to various schools. The GPA is on one axis, and the students SAT score is on the other axis. It allows you to see at a glance the results of prior applicants from a four or five year period to specific colleges, and plots where your child fits in relation to the other applicants using your child’s GPA and SAT score (or the SAT score is approximated based on the PSAT score.)</p>
<p>NewHaven–if her class will be the first class to use Naviance and if the school has not loaded data from prior classes into Naviance, then it won’t be of great use to you. It includes plenty of useful college-specific information and it is nice to have all of that information aggregated, but I find the prior years’ admissions data to be the most useful feature of Naviance. </p>
<p>I recall stumbling across a thread on this site where students posted their school’s Naviance password. You could search for these and then log into other schools’ sites but the data is not that useful out of context. You would also need the corresponding school’s School Profile to attempt to calculate how your D’s school grades in comparison to the Naviance school. You still wouldn’t know if the applicants were recruited athletes, legacies or URMs, but you wouldn’t necessarily know that at your D’s school either.</p>
<p>Hope that explanation did not confuse things further.</p>
<p>You can also go to college data dot com and look up colleges and see their scattergrams and they give you a range of the likelihood of admissions.</p>
<p>Just note, for some summer programs and also EPGY (Stanford educational program for the gifted), they specifically ask for a PAPER copy of your SAT scores. The first time I took it, I forgot to also ask to have a paper copy sent to me and spent like 20 min convincing the registration people to take the unofficial report. You can ensure you get a paper copy by checking off a box during initial registration. You get an electronic report either way. </p>
<p>Best wishes to your children with scores! I actually thought the Nov. scores were coming out the day after they actually came out and only checked after I saw CC, hehe.</p>
<p>NHCtMom - The other drawback to Naviance is you can toggle between ACT and SAT for the same school. If a student has taken both, doing statistically better on one it will still chart both scores as an admit anywhere they are accepted even if the lower is never submitted. </p>
<p>For example Sue takes the SAT and gets a 1950, but gets a 34 on the ACT. She applies to Boston College, Cornell, and UMich, using only the ACT getting into all three. On the scattagram each school is going to show an admit for an SAT of 1950/GPA X even though that score was never submitted. It’s very misleading. </p>
<p>It’s a good screening tool to judge what might be a reach vs match for schools right on the edge. If something looks like an outlier it is and has effected the average. Look at the cluster of admits which will almost always be higher then the average. There’s your sweet spot, knowing you have 5yo data mixed in and most schools get more competitive.</p>
<p>Anjintrader, thanks for the recommendation of the two high school GC website. Yes, they have so much more information than ours. One is even a public school!</p>
<p>Welcome to the 2014 thread, Anjintrader! </p>
<p>ecouter, goodluck on your summer program applications! What a pain to have to send a paper original copy!</p>
<p>College GC at Spykid’s school held a seminar today for Juniors. She had them fill out a sheet that helped form an idea about what they want in colleges academically, religiously, socially and zoned in on location and financial needs. </p>
<p>She talked about Naviance and how to use it. Later on (no idea when) they will fill out the profiles on Naviance. Spykid attends a private prep school. There are 4 GC for roughly 850 students and one college GC. In October, she hosted a college information night with different speakers and presentations on financial aid. We’ve received emails monthly or bi monthly announcing in school college visits and SAT/ACT testing dates, SAT prep class information (they hold two four week sessions at the school for a $75 fee) etc. </p>
<p>Her regular GC will be sitting down with her to look at next year’s classes. Overall, the school is doing a decent job, but I would be lost without CC!</p>
<p>Not everyone is a CC fan, I discovered this weekend. While touring a LAC in Los Angeles I was chatting with a college counselor about CC. She told me not to bother that it was a time suck. I explained that I mostly hang out on the parent forum and that you all are a wealth of information. She did admit she’ll pop in and see when acceptance letters go out.</p>
<p>VV: We toured Chapman and Occidental. Both are small LAC in the So Cal area. We’re not looking at any UC’s as OOS tuition is $55K!</p>
<p>One other comment regarding scattergrams…for our particular school where the gpa is unweighted the axes of gpa and sat/act gives no bearing to depth of curriculum (AP vs Hon vs reg)…so a little bit limited</p>
<p>Yes, colleges generally don’t have a great view of cc. They see the ‘chance me’ threads and the myriad of misinformation out there for their own school. Do they get an official rep account and become a presence on their schools forum, answering questions and trying to keep the misinformation at a minimum while steering folks to ‘official’ sources of information (admissions blog, Facebook, or twitter)? It takes time, sometimes abuse, and it’s hard to find the right balance of being there and ‘managing the message’. I’ve seen forums where reps do a good job, only showing up for important things, specific questions, but let the forum roll. I’ve seen where the rep comments on literally each and every thread, which honestly is annoying. Step back and let people talk!! </p>
<p>So, I get why it’s not a great subject for some. As you pointed out, I find the parents forum to be a great source of information, not to mention support. You get to know who the reputable posters are, and the ‘experts’ in certain areas. There are some amazing folks in the financial aid forum!</p>
<p>I logged into Naviance for the first time. Have to get used to the scattergrams.</p>
<p>Agentyninetynine – D got into Oxy – seriously considered it – but I think the sticker price was north of $58K. And yes, most GCs at my kids school are very dismissive about CC. “Oh yeah – I’ve heard of that.” I mean, how could they acknowledge and praise a site that basically replaces them? I’ve gotten more info here than I ever did in their office. </p>
<p>And another thing – do you think these GCs get kickbacks for recommending schools? It wouldn’t be so far fetched. Both GCs for high-achieving D and LD S recommended James Madison U. when I said “are there any other schools we should consider”. Nothing against it, but there is very little overlap between my 2 kids, scholastically. Why would 2 different GCs 3 years apart recommend the same exact school to my 2 very different kids?</p>
<p>Blue–excellent point.
“The other drawback to Naviance is you can toggle between ACT and SAT for the same school. If a student has taken both, doing statistically better on one it will still chart both scores as an admit anywhere they are accepted even if the lower is never submitted.”</p>
<p>Vandy–another great point:</p>
<p>“for our particular school where the gpa is unweighted the axes of gpa and sat/act gives no bearing to depth of curriculum (AP vs Hon vs reg)…so a little bit limited”</p>
<p>Blue - I guess I didn’t make it clear that she was a private college counselor. She was very disdainful of CC. Maybe she wants parents to pay her fee rather than gather the information for free.</p>
<p>My S’14 is so awesome. He asked me the other day how you make a cake in a mug. He said he wanted to bake a cake in a mug for a girl for her birthday and the mug would be her birthday present. He is at his dad’s this week, so I sent him a message that I found a recipe and that they are made in the microwave. He sends a message back asking “How I could I write something on the bottom of the mug, like ‘prom?’ so when she eats the cake, she sees that I’m asking her to prom too?” </p>
<p>Isn’t that a cute idea? From a 17 year old boy no less.</p>
<p>Barnard mom, very cute idea! Isn’t it amazing how elaborate askings are these days? Back in the day, a boy just asked the question. Now there are choreographed dance routines, skits, baked goods, costumes, and props – sometimes all together!</p>
<p>Sent from my SCH-I510 using CC</p>
<p>You’ve done a good job raising your son, Barnard! What a creative idea, especially from a 17 year old boy. May I suggest he doesn’t write Prom on the bottom, in the event she doesn’t eat the entire cupcake? </p>
<p>Sadly, one of the schools we toured this past weekend did not make DD’s cut. She left with the impression that academics were not highly prized. Can’t fault her as I saw two student made signs misspelled. Ouch.</p>
<p>Agentninetynine - I’m just a little slow on the CR section, lol. I’m sure you were perfectly clear. That makes sence (although I have met reps that really don’t like cc). For a private college consultant it could absolutely be seen as a threat. Anything that allows us commoners access to information. There are a few college counselors here on cc that participate as civilians (ie they don’t advertise who they are or what they do). So I guess they see the value that we do. ;)</p>
<p>BarnardMom - That’s adorable about the cake in the mug with the prom invite! Keep us posted on the success. I hope she says yes! :)</p>
<p>How sweet! What a thoughtful son! I agree, you have raised a real gentleman!!! Be proud of him!</p>
<p>BarnardMom—adorable idea!</p>
<p>Agent99–I think a trip where your child crosses off a school is still a useful trip. We toured schools last summer based on convenient access and a few were definitely off the list immediately but each decision made sharpens my son’s decision-making skills, or so I am hoping!</p>