Erich Finch For those of us in the class of 2014, our careers at Latin are at the beginning of the end. We now officially have had Junior College Counseling since the start of the second semester, but now as we finish the third quarter, things have begun to get serious. I am not at all suggesting that College Counseling is harder now than it will be next year. Rather, we are beginning to unlock the door to our lives past Latin. Before we get that key we have to overcome the Great Depression that is Naviance. For those who may not know, Naviance is a website used by the CC office to help communicate with students. With Naviance, your entire high school career is summed up on one profile. Then, after you complete a few assignments and meet with your counselor, you begin to receive suggested lists from Naviance. You can go to a school’s profile and see how you rank up with previous (anonymous) Latin students who were accepted into that school. It really is a very useful tool that juniors should have on their bookmark toolbars (even though this may drive us to near insanity). However, Naviance has seemed to open the Levees of Denmark and flood the junior floor with tears. Why? Three words: Grade. Point. Average. Your first encounter with Naviance is also the first time that you come face to face with that number that seems to tell you how academically successful you have been in high school. The process goes as follows: The College Counseling class all goes to the computer lab and opens up Naviance for the first time. After navigating your way to your profile, you come across your GPA. People than compare it with their dream schools’ average incoming GPAs (perhaps Stanford, Harvard, Columbia, and all things Ivy League). Occasionally, when the numbers don’t match, the situation results in a bucket of stress and tears that would frighten Britney Spears’ therapist. Your job suddenly becomes being a handkerchief-pillow for your friends. People spend hours roaming the depths of Naviance seeing if any schools will take them. Usually, they aim so high that they end up disappointed and even more broken. I have heard stories of people spending three hours on Naviance. But don’t despair–I have a few words of personal advice for my stressed-out juniors: Close Naviance and open up RomanNet. Your life is not over because of your 3.3 GPA. You have the ability to work even harder and show colleges how much you have improved. Yes, there are schools that see that C you got freshman year and will toss your name in the recycling bin. But who needs those schools? I say, instead of crying about the past, take this opportunity to go out there and try something new; maybe that involves joining a club or developing a new work ethic. Either way, Naviance can be seen as a wake up call to branch out and expand. Turn off the tears and turn on the engines. We’re almost there. We juniors can survive the five more quarters we have left here at Latin.]]>