Naviance Allows WHS Students to See College Data

Westfield High School students can find out details on other WHS students who've applied to college when they start the college search process.

The Naviance program is a computer tool used to assist students in the college search process. Ryan McGarrigan, the guidance counselor who administers Naviance, said the program helps by providing Westfield specific data for the students.

"It shows what was used to accept or not accept students from Westfield High School itself," he said.

Students can compare their individual grade point average and testing scores with other WHS students who have been accepted to the school since 2006. Students receive a password in their junior year and their test scores are uploaded into the system. When they start looking at a specific college, a scattergram comes up showing the standardized test scores and GPAs of students who were accepted at the college from WHS. Students will then see where they fall on the chart in order to figure out how likely it is that they will be accepted.

McGarrigan said it is important for a student to see how he or she falls on the chart based on past WHS acceptances at a school. He said colleges routinely look at the unique circumstances of each high school and a Westfield student may not be looked at the same way as a student from a small rural high school in Nebraska.

"When you are in admissions at a college, the different high schools have different things," he said. "The distribution of GPAs, class offerings and advanced placement classes."

The data is confidential in the system. While a student can see where past accepted WHS students fall and can see the GPA and test score for the students, the system keeps the identity of each student a secret.

McGarrigan said more and more high schools have been utilizing Naviance as a college search tool. The program used at WHS is specific to Westfield. A student only has access to past WHS data, the same way a student at Cranford High School will only be reviewing Cranford data.

McGarrigan said Naviance helps in developing college search plans with students. He said the program allows him and his colleagues to help narrow college plans by schools. While some students may hold out hope that there is an anomaly in a specific student falling outside a specific college acceptance trend, the counselors usually know if there is a specific reason, such as a star athlete or a creative type admitted based on an art or music portfolio. By reviewing the data, students can figure out safe schools from so-called "reach" schools.

The program also allows students to narrow their college choices based on specific requirements. Students can specifically search for small suburban religious liberal arts colleges in the the Northeast if that's what they are looking for. Once the list is compiled, students can then start looking at the scattergram data for each school.

McGarrigan said that while Naviance has proved popular with students and parents, he stresses it is only a part of the entire college search process. He said it should not replace college visits and should not be used to entirely select a college based on the scattergrams.

"This is a tool and step in the process," he said.