No one tool can take the place of research. At the end of the day, each student, with or without help from mom and dad, needs to come up with a realistic list of colleges.
You can’t count on the guidance counselor or College Placement office to do it for you-- there are simply too many kids for them to do it effectively, Kids who rely on them are bound to be given basically the same list— here’s your major and GPA, here’s the list we recommend.
But Naviance can be a great help to people who are willing to see it for what it is: one tool of many.
For some kids, simply having a list of “Schools I’m looking at” in one place is a huge help. The ability to click on any one school’s name and get a rundown of what that school offers is helpful. The ability to look at the scattergrams, at least for schools that kids from your school have applied to, and see their results, can be helpful.
And, as a teacher, it’s helpful for me to be able to submit my letters of recommendation onto Naviance. It means that the kids for whom I’ve written letters know that my letters are in.
Naviance isn’t a one stop cure all for kids who don’t know where they want to do. But it’s a helpful tool for kids who are in the process of applying and deciding where to apply.