Staples juniors and seniors have spent years relying on the program Naviance for all their college-related needs. Naviance was believed to have all it could offer to students searching for their perfect college. However, in the past year, another program believed to be more beneficial to students has arisen. In light of that, Staples has made the switch from Naviance to a new program: Scoir.
Scoir is Staples’ newest recommended college aid program, and according to Staples’ Director of School Counseling, William Plunkett, it already looks like a better resource for students, staff and parents alike.
“Part of it is just how user friendly it is, especially for students and families to be able to navigate,” Plunkett said. “I think we were just finding [Naviance] to be a little cumbersome and difficult to maneuver within the program.”
Another well-revered feature of Scoir is its ability to include parents in their child’s college search and discussion.
“Students are responsible for driving everything, but parents are able to suggest colleges that might be good for their child to consider,” Plunkett said.
Staples guidance counselors will soon be going through classrooms to explain Scoir in more depth to students, and they will also hold a workshop to teach parents how to use Scoir.
Science teacher Heather Wirkus also has praise for Scoir. She says that it appeals to staff, too.
“As a teacher, I have found that Scoir is much easier to navigate in terms of seeing who has requested recommendations and what colleges they’re going to,” Wirkus said. “One thing that I do enjoy is that they include the little icons with the symbols for each college which makes it a little fancier to look at.”
At this point, a majority of the class of 2024 has had experience with both Naviance and Scoir, and they are able to compare the two.
“[Naviance] never really helped us with the college search process,” Charlie Scott ’24 said. “But Scoir on the other hand made it super easy.”
