An Entire Thread on Naviance and Prep Schools

girlgeekmom
Fri, 19 Feb 2016 15:43:36 +0000

Since the thread that launched the Naviance discussion talked a lot about the Parent Essay—in Naviance called the Parent Questionnaire. I just wanted to add something I didn’t really see there. In big schools especially, a combination of teacher input and the PE may be the only way a student’s CC will get to “know” them as other than a statistic. If there are major life events that affected your child’s school career, the PQ is the place to discuss them. Students don’t have access to the PQ, so you can really have at it. Even in small schools, a new CC, for example, won’t have much knowledge of a particular student; i.e. if their first year is the student’s senior year, it behooves you to give them as much relevant background as you can.

For those new to Naviance, if your school uses it I’ll also chime in that, in addition to the data-driven information system that is used within the school community, it functions externally similarly to the Common App for providing data to colleges to which your student is applying: e.g. school college counseling offices will upload quarterly and midyear grades to both Naviance and CA, and U.S. post-secondary institutions that subscribe to one system or another can access them — saving secondary schools a LOT of uploading, and insuring quick access to time-sensitive (for institutions’ decision-making purposes) information.

For those whose kids use or will be using Naviance and will be applying to any foreign schools, including those in Canada, be aware that they may have different requirements for receiving transcripts and other documentation, and that your student may have a more direct/hands-on experience applying to these schools.