Naviance Access, esp at GDS and Maret

[Anonymous]

Episcopal High School makes the parent come to the college counselor in person to review Naviance.

IMO only, I suspect this is because their scattergram is pretty wild -- the school has a VERY dramatic range in abilities within its student body. I suspect the counselor feels compelled to interpret / explain the dots, rather than let the parents wing it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From experience, wondering is just a short-lived intermediate stage. You soon realize that the kids that get in with lower stats fit a pattern that does not apply to unhooked white kids. However, in many private schools there a lot of preferential-access kids, compared to say a suburban public school.

I'm more than happy for my legacy, nonwhite DC to compete against anyone any day on any measure. Please don't be so stupid as to assume that your DC's kept out of the Ivies because they are white. And, the fact of the matter is that legacies have higher average test scores and grades than other applicants at the elite schools. Bitter white privilege just isn't a good look for anyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And, of course, the school would get grief from parents wondering why their higher stats kid got passed over when a lower stats kid got admitted and/or when other kids with those stats always seem to get in.

From experience, wondering is just a short-lived intermediate stage. You soon realize that the kids that get in with lower stats fit a pattern that does not apply to unhooked white kids. However, in many private schools there a lot of preferential-access kids, compared to say a suburban public school.

From experience, comments like this are frequent when parents believe that GPA and standardized test scores are objective indicators of merit and everything else is unfair advantage. Since Naviance's way of representing admissions decisions reinforces this mindset.

[Anonymous]

, some privates may resist purchasing their service.

[Anonymous]

Maret does not, but they do provide an indication of the high and low gpa and test scores of admitted kids to a large list of colleges. Not exactly Naviance but it gives you some ideas.

[Anonymous]

A technical question from someone who's never used this softwae:

If you have access to Naviance because you're a high school parent in MoCo, can you see ONLY your kids' high school? Or could you look at any school you wanted to? Because although my children attend an independent school, my good friends in MoCo will have access to Naviance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And, of course, the school would get grief from parents wondering why their higher stats kid got passed over when a lower stats kid got admitted and/or when other kids with those stats always seem to get in.

From experience, wondering is just a short-lived intermediate stage. You soon realize that the kids that get in with lower stats fit a pattern that does not apply to unhooked white kids. However, in many private schools there a lot of preferential-access kids, compared to say a suburban public school.

From experience, comments like this are frequent when parents believe that GPA and standardized test scores are objective indicators of merit and everything else is unfair advantage. Since Naviance's way of representing admissions decisions reinforces this mindset.

From experience, usually parents with legacy to bequeath say this. No one is saying that these DCs aren't competitive candidates. It is a reality that schedule rigor, GPA and test scores don't speak louder than institutional priorities. Certainly an advantage, fair or unfair, to those who meet the criteria and that's life.

To the parent that has a legacy, non white you got a twofer. There are kids out there more qualified than yours because there always are. I don't know that parents are so much bitter as naturally upset that they tell their kids all their lives to work hard for what they want, only for their kids to become disillusioned. That's life too and we know it, our kids will learn from their skinned knee. But for you to suggest that legacy is on average smarter than these kids, that's rather narrow of you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A technical question from someone who's never used this softwae:

If you have access to Naviance because you're a high school parent in MoCo, can you see ONLY your kids' high school? Or could you look at any school you wanted to? Because although my children attend an independent school, my good friends in MoCo will have access to Naviance.

You only see results for your school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And, of course, the school would get grief from parents wondering why their higher stats kid got passed over when a lower stats kid got admitted and/or when other kids with those stats always seem to get in.

From experience, wondering is just a short-lived intermediate stage. You soon realize that the kids that get in with lower stats fit a pattern that does not apply to unhooked white kids. However, in many private schools there a lot of preferential-access kids, compared to say a suburban public school.

From experience, comments like this are frequent when parents believe that GPA and standardized test scores are objective indicators of merit and everything else is unfair advantage. Since Naviance's way of representing admissions decisions reinforces this mindset.

From experience, usually parents with legacy to bequeath say this. No one is saying that these DCs aren't competitive candidates. It is a reality that schedule rigor, GPA and test scores don't speak louder than institutional priorities. Certainly an advantage, fair or unfair, to those who meet the criteria and that's life.

To the parent that has a legacy, non white you got a twofer. There are kids out there more qualified than yours because there always are. I don't know that parents are so much bitter as naturally upset that they tell their kids all their lives to work hard for what they want, only for their kids to become disillusioned. That's life too and we know it, our kids will learn from their skinned knee. But for you to suggest that legacy is on average smarter than these kids, that's rather narrow of you.

Schedule rigor isn't reflected in Naviance, nor are teacher recommendations, or extracurriculars. The truth is that, beyond a certain threshold, scores aren't driving these decisions and GPAs per se (vs transcripts/recs) almost never are. FWIW, my kid didn't apply to the schools where she would qualify as a legacy. In part, that's because DC got so tired of listening to these knee-jerk dismissals of the accomplishments of other kids who got admitted to the same (HYP) school as one of their parents did.

And your "twofer" comment is so effed up I don't know where to begin.... If there's always someone more qualified, why is it the non-white kid's admission that you resent most?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the parent that has a legacy, non white you got a twofer... But for you to suggest that legacy is on average smarter than these kids, that's rather narrow of you.

I never said legacy students are smarter. I said they have higher SATs. (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/education/09legacies.html) For reasons other posters have pointed out, I don't think SAT and GPAs are good measures of merit so I would never claim that someone with higher SAT scores is smarter. Trying to judge applicants using numbers alone is what is really narrow minded.

[Anonymous]

Schedule rigor is built into Naviance. It is weighted GPA's that is shown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From experience, wondering is just a short-lived intermediate stage. You soon realize that the kids that get in with lower stats fit a pattern that does not apply to unhooked white kids. However, in many private schools there a lot of preferential-access kids, compared to say a suburban public school.

I'm more than happy for my legacy, nonwhite DC to compete against anyone any day on any measure. Please don't be so stupid as to assume that your DC's kept out of the Ivies because they are white. And, the fact of the matter is that legacies have higher average test scores and grades than other applicants at the elite schools. Bitter white privilege just isn't a good look for anyone.

Read your own comment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the parent that has a legacy, non white you got a twofer... But for you to suggest that legacy is on average smarter than these kids, that's rather narrow of you.

I never said legacy students are smarter. I said they have higher SATs. (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/education/09legacies.html) For reasons other posters have pointed out, I don't think SAT and GPAs are good measures of merit so I would never claim that someone with higher SAT scores is smarter. Trying to judge applicants using numbers alone is what is really narrow minded.

This is hysterical. I clicked on the link this PP provided which was all about legacy advantages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Schedule rigor is built into Naviance. It is weighted GPA's that is shown.

GDS and Maret don't weight GPAs.

[Anonymous]

It's built into the Naviance software. The classes marked advanced are assigned different values. It does that so a kid taking classes of lower rigor making a 4.0 does look stronger than a kid taking all advanced classes with less than a 4.0. It's not the school that does the weighing.