Naviance is wrong

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don’t trust naviance. My son with near perfect SAT score and 4.89 GPA was rejected from every single school except for his safeties.

I'm sorry it is such a tough admission season for you and your son.



Naviance isn't wrong. It just reports what happened in the past to the extent the schools know. But naviance also doesn't include things about the essay, extracurriculars, and extenuating circumstances, so rely on it at your peril.

(For example, my son's naviance record would be a data point suggesting it easier to get into some of these schools than is actually true. His relatively low GPA reflected some illness in freshman year that the schools knew about but naviance doesn't. His GPA without freshman year included would be a pretty standard UVA admit. With freshman year... oy veh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I need to know this for next year....isn’t Naviance just an overview of scores ( gpa and sat/act) that provide the typical stats you’d want to hit even consider if viable option? After that, it’s what the school wants the profile of that years class. Frustrating I am anticipating but I’m reading that’s what it is now as so many kids have these high scores now.

I hope you dc finds a place he feels good about!

and it is only helpful at popular schools.

[Anonymous]

Can you tell us which schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with PP that ECs, essays or recommendations may have been weaker than he thought. Especially at the very competitive schools, there are so many kids with great scores for so few spots that they have to make distinctions based on the soft skills aspects. For example, a kid can be brilliant but of the teachers think he is not a team player or cheats or something like that, he will not get a good recommendation (not saying your kid falls into that bucket, just using an example).

+1

Those things for my kid were probably stronger than average.

His EC was a 12 year committment at a national level to an odd niche thing that is fun to talk about. His essay made him sound like a lovely curious kid, and although some teachers really couldn't stand him, there were a few who thought he was a delight to have around.

[Anonymous]

It takes two data points into account, and the schools take much more into account.

That is why parents should not be single-mindedly focused on GPA and SAT...or college rankings.

I recommend that prospective students take a holistic approach to making their college choice, just like the colleges will do about student selection.

[Anonymous]

As a teacher, I hate that Naviance means the college counselling team gets to review my "confidential" letters of rec. This past year, they asked me to change multiple letters. This means I will be graciously refusing to write recs for many students next year.

I put a lot of time into my letters of rec, and I gave specific detail in support of my students. I know these students well. I've been doing this a long time, and I know what information is useful in letters of rec. The "college counselling" team at our school have weakened some candidates' letters of rec by demanding these changes. I do not feel satisfied or comfortable having these people review what used to be truly confidential letters of rec, from me to college admissions officers.

[Anonymous]

That is unethical to me, since they are not signing the letter.

I bet the colleges do not know that there is a marketing team vetting the letters. I am a professor (who is often asked to write letters for students) and would find this SO disturbing. Don't teachers have a voice in the process? You should organize around this.

What school are you talking about? I bet it is a private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, I hate that Naviance means the college counselling team gets to review my "confidential" letters of rec. This past year, they asked me to change multiple letters. This means I will be graciously refusing to write recs for many students next year.

I put a lot of time into my letters of rec, and I gave specific detail in support of my students. I know these students well. I've been doing this a long time, and I know what information is useful in letters of rec. The "college counselling" team at our school have weakened some candidates' letters of rec by demanding these changes. I do not feel satisfied or comfortable having these people review what used to be truly confidential letters of rec, from me to college admissions officers.

Naviance isn’t the problem. It’s your colleagues in your school that are the problem. Talk to other teachers. Talk to your administrators. If you really care about this, please don’t be one of those hs teachers that just complains without actually doing anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, I hate that Naviance means the college counselling team gets to review my "confidential" letters of rec. This past year, they asked me to change multiple letters. This means I will be graciously refusing to write recs for many students next year.

I put a lot of time into my letters of rec, and I gave specific detail in support of my students. I know these students well. I've been doing this a long time, and I know what information is useful in letters of rec. The "college counselling" team at our school have weakened some candidates' letters of rec by demanding these changes. I do not feel satisfied or comfortable having these people review what used to be truly confidential letters of rec, from me to college admissions officers.

Naviance isn’t the problem. It’s your colleagues in your school that are the problem. Talk to other teachers. Talk to your administrators. If you really care about this, please don’t be one of those hs teachers that just complains without actually doing anything.

You have no idea how politics within a school's administrative sphere work. Sorry, but I want to keep my job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That is unethical to me, since they are not signing the letter.

I bet the colleges do not know that there is a marketing team vetting the letters. I am a professor (who is often asked to write letters for students) and would find this SO disturbing. Don't teachers have a voice in the process? You should organize around this.

What school are you talking about? I bet it is a private.

Yes. Not in the DC area, but a pretty well-known independent. I doubt my experience is unique.

[Anonymous]

I am sorry OP. Unfortunately is the new reality.

FWIW, I had a similar kid in my dorm. He is now a Johns Hopkins educated surgeon. Sometimes these systematic errora correct in the next iteration.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:white kid?

Oh shut the f up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t trust naviance. My son with near perfect SAT score and 4.89 GPA was rejected from every single school except for his safeties.

Let me guess, the rejections were from colleges with <25% acceptance rates? Then yeah, don’t count on those.

This. You can't count on Naviance for those schools. Once you have the stats to be in range, it's really just a lottery.

Unfortunately, these kids can also then be rejected from schools that should easily be matches due to yield protection.

Agree with this. It's almost the paradox of high stats. Schools for which you have the stats are lotteries and schools for which your stats are well above the 75% percentile either seem to waitlist, reject or provide very weak merit or financial aid. As we were looking for merit we really had to show significant interest and we had to be very careful in the rankings - - not too high and not too low. Not an easy path. And it's hard on the student who has worked so hard to come to terms with where they are applying because based on their efforts they should be aiming higher. I do think it changes for full pay, high stats students as there is swath of schools for which they can apply but if you are trying to thread the needle so to speak - not easy. And my DC had very similar stat's to the OP.

[Anonymous]

ARent you saying naviance gave you a very accurate reflection? You are never very likely to get into a reach - that’s what makes it a reach. You are likely to get into the safeties. This conversation is only helpful if you name the schools; I’m betting your kid’s safeties are the reaches for lots of other kids.

[Anonymous]

Yes, this was DS’ experience too. You can be solidly in the “green” according to Naviance and still not get in or get waitlisted to a place like Michigan (as an example). It is very accurate though, for a place like UMD. I think the schools could better manage expectations about Naviance.