It’s that time of the year again, when seniors begin to stress over college applications. Naviance is the school’s most helpful resource you can use to guide you through the process.

Gathering information about all of the schools students are interested in can be stressful, but Naviance is a useful source which provides students with as much information as needed. Naviance was created to help high school students find all of the information they need to know about the colleges they want to apply to. It’s a tool that’s made for students in all grades. Mr.Garvey, one of WHBHS’s school guidance counselor’s says, “Encourage the underclassmen to look at the career side of Naviance, look at the career interest inventory to see where their talents and strengths serve them well. I also think it’s great if they have a dream college, to look at it and see what they have to do early on, see the GPA and standardized test scores needed.” It’s a tool that will help students be prepared for their future and know what to expect when they come back to school their senior year and dive into all that college jazz.

Naviance gives students easy access to common applications, their PSAT scores as well as their SAT and ACT scores, SUNY applications and more. “Naviance does alleviate some stress off your shoulders, but trying to keep up is very difficult. Applying to college is a demanding job, especially the waiting.” Olivia Marsala, a senior at WHBHS adds, “Good luck to everyone applying for early decision and congrats to those already accepted!”

Another feature Naviance has is helping to prepare for applying to college are the graphs which take GPA and SAT or ACT scores to show students where they stand with getting accepted compared to others from WHB who have graduated and applied there. “I think it allows students to size up how they match up, by looking at an expected GPA and SAT scores and seeing how they fair” Mr.Garvey says.

“The college selection process is never an easy task, but Naviance has helped narrow down my choices to a few schools, already making life a little less stressful,”  Olivia says. Applying to colleges can be, and most likely will be stressful. Take time to explore the college life and know what the future could hold. Mr.Garvey’s advice for applying to colleges is “Visit, visit, visit, visit,” he also adds, “Kids need to take their classes seriously, college is an important investment of time and money. It’s possibly four great years, so do your research, ask questions, and talk to your guidance counselor about planning.”