I think it is a good starting point, and the main weaknesses have been pointed out. Namely inaccurate (usually missing) info, and hooked students. Having a good GC who can help interpret the data or explain anomolies should somewhat address the weaknesses.
A weakness going forward is going to be the TO kids. I know some have their early and unsubmitted scores showing. So for example a girl who was ED at Yale with a 28 ACT. Obviously to the obsessive CC crowd she did not submit that score, but others may not realize that and think that Yale is open to taking unhooked kids who submit sub 30 ACT scores.
In our experience this year, Naviance was totally off. I will not trust it at all for my other kids. The entire college admissions landscape changed this year with the shift to test optional. Everything is different now, rendering the Naviance data kind of obsolete (IMHO). From what our family has seen, for the competitive colleges, we are now in a world where super-high GPAs reign.
Just to provide one example, Naviance showed our state flagship as a “safety” school for my child. When you look at the scattergram, it is entirely green checkmarks for kids in my child’s range, absolutely no denials anywhere close to the range. My child’s HS consistently has 40-50 admitted to this school every year, and my child is towards the top of the class. And yet my child was waitlisted.
It seems like schools are taking about half the class from the test optional pool, so if you’re one who submitted a test (like my child), you’re competing with other high test scorers. The true advantage this year went to the kids who have very high GPAs but are not good test takers, who went test optional.
For us, it is all fine because my child doesn’t want to go to this state flagship, but it was an eye-opener. I’ve heard similar stories from many other Senior parents this year. Just be aware that things in the college admission game have really, REALLY changed. We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto!
It seems like schools are taking about half the class from the test optional pool, so if you’re one who submitted a test (like my child), you’re competing with other high test scorers.
What you describe is exactly what I was afraid of. It will be a scary month. Thanking our lucky stars that safeties are already in hand.
Since you have experience with these systems don’t you also think they work better in a larger school setting? Aren’t more data points the better? I think a large public school with 2000 kids and 5 years of data would be easier to see trends. Then again, those schools might have more kids going to a smaller group of schools.
Love to know if you think the size of the school is determinative re: the value of the data?
I agree that the more data, the better. It can sometimes be obvious that the limited data makes certain schools and situations less clear than others.
I just think that it is gold to give students that level of individual student and aggregate data. Of course, if families use the data incorrectly and form the wrong opinions - it becomes no better than the data schools publish.
Ah…I see what you’re saying. I just compared the published matriculation data to Naviance for a couple schools and it perfectly correlates for Choate (i.e. the # of students enrolled in Naviance matches the # matriculated on the school profile). But I only looked at schools with large numbers of matriculating students on the profile.
Yeah - like Harvard and Stanford, no surprise, those accepted actually go. But a kid who applied to Harvard probably applied to one or more of the other Ivies.
I think it is interesting as to the “do the CCs curate the applications, and point a kid to just one Ivy” question. I would say they probably do-ish, only because there is a lot less drop off between Naviance and matriculation than I would expect if kids are blanketing Ivies with applications and getting into multiple Ivies.
@Altras , different schools can activate different features in Naviance, so it’s possible that folks at other schools won’t see what you are seeing. Just mentioning this because I hadn’t known this and had some really frustrating conversations along the way. Where do I find that?!!
Often, those kids who look like they only applied to one school often did. My sense is that the BS kids make more use of ED than the world at large.
I think several non-boarding school posters have found this thread, so I will emphasize that Naviance for boarding schools should be considered complete and accurate. During College Info Weekend at Choate, there was a How to Use Naviance session, and we were told that every single student’s data is in there. Where self-reporting left holes, the CC office filled them in as they know every senior’s GPA and test stats, where they applied, and where they matriculated. They don’t need to rely on the students to complete the database, and it is critical to advising and the school’s institutional capital that the database be complete and accurate. You can also rely on your child’s GC to have access to the unvarnished data and back stories for any questions you have.
@gardenstategal makes an important point that each school determines what the user interface presents to its population, so not everyone here will see exactly the same options, graphs, etc.
It is not curating applications, this is called ED/REA application which vast majority of prep school kids do. If they get in, they are done before Christmas of senior year.
“the CC office filled them in as they know every senior’s GPA and test stats, where they applied, and where they matriculated.” > Blockquote
The counselors know where each student applied and where each matriculated, but that doesn’t mean they know every college where the student was accepted and chose not to attend, I think.
Since many students apply to several schools and are accepted at several but only choose one school, those other acceptances are important data points. Wouldn’t the student have to enter those?
I can’t speak for every school or current practices, but our son was required to inform his GC of all results/decisions. She knew the whole picture for each of her charges, start to finish, and she confirmed all of our son’s info with us. My suspicion is that the college results database for all of these schools is pretty complete and accurate.
What @ChoatieMom said. It is in the school’s interest to have an accurate Naviance database, one, and two, your college counselor will 100% know each school ypur child applies to. The counselors work very closely with the kids. Absolutely they want to know the outcome of every admissions decision. Keep in mind one thing boarding schools are selling is top notch college advising, so they need their information to be accurate. The students do not input anything into Naviance.
I’m sure that’s 100% true for private prep schools where GCs are not crazy busy; in D’s very top public HS in a big city, GC tried very hard but was just overwhelmed.
My problem with Naviance was that I could never be sure how complete and reliable data it had, especially in the applied/admitted numbers, they seem off based on anecdotal evidence.
The only inaccuracies we spotted were ones where a kid graduated from BS planning to attend one school and got off a WL in the summer and changed plans. But right up to graduation day, the students kept the CCs apprised.
This is just a guess, but I think that the students going through the process appreciate having good data, and at least at out school, always had a strong desire to be good community members, so felt that they owed good data to the classes behind them as payment for the good data the classes before had left them. So while the CCs mandated it, compliance was no problem.
Some people ended up on this page because the new CC site thought we would find it of interest. We see the big title “Thoughts on … Naviance” but not notice the little print that says Prep School Admissions"