Kate Howard & Lily Kazemi
Editors-in-Chief
With the arrival of Early Decision notifications last month, many seniors have been on edge. While waiting to hear back from their top choices, many students have diverted their attention to Naviance, which has caused additional anxiety.
According to senior Katie Melland, the Early Decision process is both a blessing and a nuisance. “I definitely think that ED relieves some of the stress,” she said. “I’ve noticed that lately that [because of the different notification dates]people’s college excitement has come in waves – for example when several people heard from Elon, it was basically “Elon Day.” Personally, it’s aggravating because I hear people getting in and I’m like, ‘Why haven’t [my schools]responded?’”
College and Career Center Coordinator Susan Carroll addresses how there definitely needs to be some acceptance etiquette. “There should be some kindness offered to others who have not even even applied yet and to others still waiting,” she said. “I think that posting on Facebook adds more anxiety than Naviance. Facebook is not a tool, and people should be respectful of what other people are going through.”
College applications can be a huge headache, especially for someone who hasn’t had much experience with it. For Katie, who is the eldest child in her family, she had to do extensive research and felt that the competitive nature of applying made it difficult to ask peers for help. “I’m the oldest child so my family is going into this blind – I’m going through this on my own,” she said. “It’s not like a school project where you can turn to someone and be like, ‘Hey. Am I doing this right?’”
Ms. Carroll believes that Naviance should be used, like any other college resource at a student’s fingertips, to offer additional infor- mation. “There are definitely people that visit the site more than once and then there are some people, to our frustration, that never go on,” she said. “I am a big believer in technology being a tool for students to utilize. Naviance should inform your dream, not change your dream.”
Katie admitted that, thanks to Naviance, she was scared off from applying to certain schools. “I know it’s anonymous, but Naviance is very blatant about SATs and GPAs, and that can kind of be unsettling.” she said. “There isn’t a day when someone has looked at a Naviance scattergram and been like, ‘Okay, not looking there anymore…’”
Senior Will Hennessey added how the scatterplot feature is addicting, but can also cause additional stress. “Naviance has definitely increased my stress, because I see colleges I’m interested in, but at the moment, my GPA is not quite what past NCHS admitted students have had, so I stress more about my grades,” Will said.
Senior Harrison Besser agreed that he likes to use the scatterplots as a gauge for how his statistics compare to those accepted in the past. “I think it adds some level of stress as it gives a tangible value to the applicants to each specific college,” he said. “Yet, I don’t think it is anything to obsess over; seeing the number of potential applications and not seeing the number doesn’t change the number itself.”
Will also clarified how, this year, Naviance has made it visible to see how many students from the class of 2013 have sent their transcripts to a certain school. “I think that new feature of the 2013 is neat be- cause it shows how many people are interested in applying to a certain school,” he said.
Ms. Carroll also wanted to emphasize how senior year isn’t only about applying to college, but it is also about enjoying your last year at the high school. “I guess I think that some level of anxiety is appropriate because after all your future is unknown to you but I also think a student should put that list of colleges aside and concentrate on being a senior in high school,” she said. “After all, you only have one shot at being a senior and you don’t want to throw that away.”
