| Planning
For College Online |
By Jackie Allder
Observer Staff Writer |
| For students in Fairfax and Loudoun county public school
systems, researching college acceptance data no longer means
reviewing each school's national admission requirements. |
| With the help of a new Web-based program, students can log
on to one site where they can navigate through the acceptance
data of each college or university to which anyone at their
high school has applied. |
| The program, called Counselor's Office, was created by Naviance,
a Washington, D.C.-based company. |
| "The real distinctive part of this tool is that it
allows schools to collect local data about where their students
are applying and being admitted to college," said Carol
Wasden, director of academic outreach for Naviance. |
| Counselor's Office allows a school system to load anonymously
the results of all of their students' applications to a particular
school. Included in the results are the students' SAT scores
and their grade point averages. |
| Students and their parents are then able to access that
information through the Family Connections page. They can
view the data on a Naviance scattergram, which notes the results
of all applications to a particular school. |
| The students then can plot their own scores on the scattergram,
giving them a visual of where they stand in the application
process. |
| "Students can go in and say, ‘I'm interested in George
Washington, what did they do with the students who applied
from my high school last year?'," Wasden said. |
| While colleges and universities provide students with their
average SAT scores and GPAs, these are generally based on
a national average, Wasden said. |
| "It's a much more powerful way to make decisions about
the likelihood of admission than the national average,"
she said. |
| The program also shows students who might rank lower with
their GPAs and SAT scores that there are schools that they
can attend, she said. |
| "It's a very nice way to show a student that, of course,
you have options," Wasden said. |
| In addition to its college-search options, Counselor's Office
can be loaded with a database of all scholarships available
to a particular school's students. Students can then be given
information on the scholarships that match their scores and
interests. |
| The program also includes a personality test called "Do
What You Are," which allows students to inventory their
interests, giving them possible career options based on the
results. |
| Another benefit of the program is that it improves communication
between counselors and students. Wasden said counselors are
able to post news bulletins on the family page and send e-mail
updates to students through the site. |
| "Anything that helps us communicate better with parents
and students is important," said K. Anne Lewis, supervisor
of Loudoun's guidance and health services. Loudoun started
using the program in a few test schools in 2002 and incorporated
the service throughout the county in June 2004, according
to Wasden. |
| Wasden said Fairfax joined the Naviance community in January
2006, so they are just starting up the program in the schools. |
| About 1500 schools worldwide use Naviance's programs, and
counselors and teachers have managed data for over 1.7 million
students through these programs. |
| In Virginia, 20 percent of all high schools use the program,
and three counties-Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William-have
adopted the program into their district. Visit www.naviance.com. |
