BC high’s counseling center first area public school to go paperless
For high school students, the college application process is a long and taxing affair, as teens make a major life decision they’ve been preparing for much of their lives.
At Bethlehem Central High School, that harrowing trial has been a little bit easier this year on students, families and the staff at the school’s counseling center. Beginning in 2010, most students used an Internet system called Naviance to do all of their application work electronically.
It’s a monumental shift for counselors, who are used to wading through seas of school summaries, essays, letters of recommendation and transcripts.
Registrar Mary Dugas said she’d spend weeks buried in paperwork, but now does most of her work at a computer terminal.
We literally would have somebody hired to stand at the photocopy machine during the busy time, she said. `This year, we didn’t have to hire anyone.`
Since the school adopted the system in 2007, the counseling center had come to rely more and more on Naviance, to the point where this year all students are completing their applications entirely electronically, with minor exceptions. For these seniors, paper applications are part of a world they never knew, but they said the convenience of having all the information about schools in one place is a major convenience.
`You can just see where you are and how hard it would be to get into the program,` said Anna Miroff, who has made the early decision to attend Columbia University.
Students said most of their peers complete about half a dozen applications, with some filling out 10 or more. Naviance makes that easier because many schools now accept a standard application or resume, then ask for their own supplemental materials. Not only that, but like an online dating service Naviance can take information about a student, including grades, test scores and even a personality profile, and make suggestions to students about what schools fit their criteria.
It’s more convenient for families, as well. Students and parents can access the system from home, at any time of the day or night, and the progress checklists provide parents and counselors with an easy reference to how the application process is coming along, without having to rely on the student.
Sarah Light, who hopes to go to Brown, said her mother often logs in to Naviance to take a look at her progress.
`Otherwise she’d be on me all the time,` Light said. `She can do her own searches and find out information.`
That works for the student in more ways than one. They can confirm that admissions offices are receiving information, ensuring nothing gets virtually lost in the mail.
`Through Naviance, we can see not only when we submitted it, but when the school uploaded it,` said Counseling Coordinator Gayle Moriarity.
Though we live in an increasingly digital world, Bethlehem High School is the region’s first pubic school to fully adopt Naviance. Counselor Lisa Carr, who spearheaded the adoption of the online system, said she’s often fielding requests for training from local districts like Niskayuna, Guilderland, Shenendehowa and Voorheesville, as well as schools as far away as the Binghamton area.
`We’ve always been a cutting edge school, and I think people look to us as a resource,` Carr said.
One of the reasons Naviance is so attractive is the savings a paperless system can offer, especially during such tight times for schools. At BC a $3,600 part-time position is no longer needed, and the counseling center is using about 12,000 fewer sheet of paper than in 2009.“
