What is Naviance, and what's in it for me?

weenie · 04-26-2007, 05:50 PM

We just got a letter from guidance about how to register for Naviance, Family Connection. They want us to fill out the graduation survey on there. No where in the letter does this state what it's for, why I should bother doing this, or how the data is used or protected.

Since I've heard it talked about on here I thought maybe someone would have an explanation.

Thanks.

hazmat · 04-26-2007, 05:53 PM

Software product that is used for college counseling and in some cases the selling of a school. http://naviance.com/products/index.html
http://naviance.com/products/workspacek12/co.html

cameliasinensis · 04-26-2007, 06:04 PM

Its most useful feature is that it graphs past admissions outcomes for each college, which gives students an idea of how their numbers compare to those of past acceptees from their high school. I attend a very small school where students tend to apply to Brown and Stanford but not Dartmouth, so in my case this graph wasn't very telling, but here is a screen cap anyway.

astrophysicsmom · 04-26-2007, 06:26 PM

And it's a way for future students to see where their predecessors were able to be admitted.

hazmat · 04-26-2007, 06:41 PM

Naviance is only as useful and your school makes it. Some schools are too small to effectively post data and other schools don't train well on it and use it poorly for that reason. As you said........how secure and what will it help you with? Ask questions.

novice07 · 04-26-2007, 07:28 PM

I found ours to be very useful. It's easier to use than collegeboard, imo.

I loved the graphs and seeing how many from my school, in the past, got accepted to certain colleges.

hazmat · 04-26-2007, 07:35 PM

again it is a factor of the depth of the data base. At what census the data points aren't entered. One student, two students..........each school decides for themselves.

cameliasinensis · 04-26-2007, 07:45 PM

As far as I know, the university counselors at my school enter everyone into the database. I didn't realize that might not be the case everywhere.

weenie · 04-26-2007, 07:45 PM

Well, here's the deal.

This high school has always tracked this information on paper in the past. Of course, it's spotty (especially because it's an all-boys school, and let's just say handing in information like that is pretty low on their priority list, lol), but it has been somewhat interesting (or depressing) to those of us who bother to look at it.

Anyway, my doubts have to do with this being on line. Seems like a lot of personal information to entrust to a "service" - or am I just paranoid?

P.S. I did email guidance. I bet you $100 I'm the only parent who did. (But then again, I'll bet most of them threw the letter away.)

hazmat · 04-26-2007, 07:47 PM

Service? I am losing your message. I guess you can see a product in a box as a service.

danas · 04-26-2007, 09:41 PM

My daughter is a home schooler and I made up my own chart using composite SAT and Subject Tests for the variables. My data? The previous year's ED thread from College Confidential. There were 40 admits and 47 deferred, not counting URMs, legacies, and athletic recruits. We could immediately see that see was a likely admit. 14 of 17 applicants in her scores ranges were admitted the previous year. She was too.

NJres · 04-26-2007, 09:59 PM

I found Naviance pretty useful, and we only list the number applied, accepted and enrolled at each college. But I don't think there is any breakout of ED vs RD applications. That would be useful.

chocoholic · 04-26-2007, 10:08 PM

Naviance is a great tool, but has to be interpreted carefully imo. If a kid applies to 15 schools, and tells their GC of the 1 school that he decided to go to, and does not bother to tell her that he got into all 15 schools, I'm not sure how that missing information reflects on the graph. If enough kids did that, it could make those schools seem harder to get into than they actually are?

Karen Colleges · 04-26-2007, 10:45 PM

If your school has a lot of info entered, it can be fun to see where you and your school mates fit in on a college's graph of acceptances from your school. It gives sort of an idea of what your chances are. Counselor has to input your GPA and SAT. If you and the counselor keep it up to date, Naviance tracks applications sent, transcripts, etc. Can be a useful tool. Has an easy college search feature.

ShanghaiMom · 04-26-2007, 10:51 PM

It can also be used as an email server by counselors - to send out group emails about college information. In our school the counselors do this - as well as sending other things through edline and the school server - gets very confusing to have to be on so many lists but you don't want to miss any information.