@kbm770 Naviance had limited use for S19 since he was looking at LACs and we had little history. I had to talk to the guidance office to get some details and even then there wasn’t much to go on.
Weirdly enough, now that test scores might not be a thing, it’s easier for me to see where D21 sits for admissions at most schools on her list. The problem with test scores and Naviance is two fold. One, you can see each student either with their ACT or SAT but you have no idea which one they submitted and, two, Naviance doesn’t show superscores so the scores for admitted students are likely lower than what was really considered. Without looking at scores, I can clearly see where D sits with weighted and unweighted GPA.
Our Naviance shows superscores. I only know that because I know her score!
S17 went to a different high school - much smaller. Naviance was pretty useless because such a small base. Nobody gets into Princeton from our school without a hook. 3 kids in the last 10 years or so - 2 kids of Princeton employees and the 3rd a recruited athlete. Really annoying to the Val who was rejected with nothing lower than a 95 all 4 years of high school - and the recruited athlete with more than a handful of B’s! Good lesson for the real world, I suppose!
@inthegarden which coastal regional is that??? D21 has been on a “school near water” kick!
Those of you with Naviance at least have that as a tool. I’m a bit envious.
I’m flying blind here. Most of the kids who go to my kid’s HS typically stay in state.
As a homeschooler, D21 doesn’t have that tool either. Hence the decision to apply to a great many schools. She definitely has five or six strong favorites, but she will apply to many more (each of which she would be happy to attend) just in case. There is going to be a lot of essay writing this summer…
@JanieWalker - I hear you! S21 already has a draft of his common app. It needs a bit of refining, but I think it will be fine. I’d like him to have it done shortly. He will start applying as soon as apps open up. He also has various essays from summer programs, so he will be able to repurpose those. I’m not looking forward to having to hear him moan about essay writing.
I wonder if schools have stats on how many homeschooled students they have apply and how many they accept. And if there’s any rhyme or reason to the kinds of classes the homeschooled kids take who they accept. Maybe that info is impossible to find but I bet you could ask the AO and get at least some information that could help give an idea if your child is in the ballpark.
That’s great! D21 has a very very very very rough draft of her Common App essay done, and she plans on working on it a little at a time between now and August. The more done over the early summer the better. Senior year will be busy and stressful enough as it is.
@homerdog - I’m not sure. There may be one or two that have rolling admissions that open in the summer. On a bummer note, Buckeye Boys State just cancelled. Now waiting to hear about a summer program at Yale. I’m guessing this will be online and not in person.
@Momof3B - I thought perhaps Trinity in Texas might be an option for S21, but we took a virtual tour, and he thought he would not be happy there. Which is disappointing, b/c they have tuition exchange. As a widower, I’m hunting for NMF and tuition exchange $.
My thoughts, exactly! We have no info to help guide us,. Nobody applies to HPY, and if anybody applies to T20 out of state, they don’t go. I’m in VA and our top kids go to UVA or W&M. DDs class is just under 400, but only 52% of '19 went to a 4 year school. Totally flying blind.
We were really impressed by the Regional Admissions Rep for Trinity that we met at a college fair…I would like my son to apply but I think it will be a reach for him…both stats wise and financially for us. We were supposed to do a tour there in April and then Covid hit.
Agree…Virginia is not only lucky to have great state schools, but also to have one that is pretty top-drawer yet medium-sized (W&M) for those who want a quieter campus.
Totally, @havenoidea and @inthegarden, but DD wants a smaller school (UVA is out) and she’d be 4th generation legacy at W&M (me, both my parents, my grandpa and a few other cousins and an uncle). She will definitely apply, but really wants to chart her own course.
The college advisor/counselor we’re working with said that there isn’t any benefit to doing that for UT/TAMU because apps can’t even be completed until high school counselors don’t even get back to work on transcripts until school starts back up in August. I’m so confused…i hear and see one thing here on CC and then get conflicting information from
the professional college counselor/advisor.
As @homerdog and other advised don’t rely on Naviance or CB or niche or college data or any other similar sites to predict admissions or matches based simply on numbers. My D18 had 35ACT, 4,0UW, 4.5UW 10 AP classes, musicals, community volunteering, and a varsity sport at a large HS with 750 in her class. As she was my first looking and frankly I was very naive as to the competitive nature of the current college admission process, I looked at all the sites mentioned above and allowed myself to be fooled.
After touring lots of schools we came up with a list of seven schools to apply to. 3 reaches, (Princeton, Brown and Vandy) 2 what I thought were matches (UNC and UVA) and 2 safeties (Clemson and UDel). Unfortunately I did not appreciate that the matches as an OSS student were actually reaches as well. Rejected at all the Ivies, UNC and UVA. WL at Vandy and only acceptances to Clemson and Udel. My wife was very pissed at me when all the rejections came in. She thought I should have had her apply to more schools. But frankly at the time I couldn’t imagine that with those stats and EC’s she would get rejected to all of the those schools. And of course I relied in some respects to all of those websites and scattergrams.
I share this only to advise those who are doing this for the first time. There are tons of kids that have all the stats to get into Ivies and the type 50 schools who don’t get accepted. Even the top state school such as UNC, UVA, the top UC schools, UT Austin etc. are all crap shoots even for the tippy top students. Geography, hooks, first generation, etc all play a big factor. Don’t assume because your kid has the stats and Ec’s that they will get into every school they are interested in. Give your student a broad net of schools to apply to give them a decent amount of options.
