Niles West and Niles North have transitioned from using Naviance, a college and career readiness platform, to MaiaLearning. Naviance is a popular resource for both students and counselors to gather information on a student’s academic progress and extracurriculars; however, MaiaLearning has become more favored in recent years due to its personalization capabilities for students.

When a student creates their account on MaiaLearning, they are presented with their student dashboard that has all of their academic information from GPA, courses they have taken, and test scores. Under this section, a student can find all of the tasks they need to complete related to taking standardized tests and college activities, such as organizing registration/exam dates and planning visits to colleges you are applying to. This allows students to go down the checklist and eliminates the fear of missing out on important tasks to complete. The site also connects students to scholarships both locally and nationally.

A feature that sets MaiaLearning apart from other platforms is the different assessments related to a student’s personality and career options. The five listed are the Interest Profiler, Work Values, Personality, Skills, and Thriving Index. Each of these assessments asks questions about different topics related to specific skillsets in careers. The interest profiler, for example, asks how much you like or dislike certain tasks, while the skills section helps you understand your critical thinking skills, leadership, and more.

In an interview conducted in 2018 with the co-founder and CEO of MaiaLearning, Satish Mirle, he describes the goal of the platform for students. “MaiaLearning lets students plan for futures they’re excited about. That excitement helps them power through the parts of middle and high school that aren’t so much fun because they can see themselves moving toward something personally important,” Mirle said.

MaiaLearning’s many capabilities have not just become a resource for students but also overworked counselors across the country who are required to help students and also take on administrative responsibilities. Counselors are able to contact students who have not completed a certain assignment, and they can view who has applied Early Decision / Regular Decision. They can submit documents on behalf of students easily, as companies like Parchment have teamed up with MaiaLearning.

According to a study conducted by the American School Counseling Association (ASCA), when school counselors are given access to tools for education enhancement, the student is more likely to perform better on standardized tests like the ACT and SAT and have an increased chance of being accepted into more colleges/universities. Tara P. Nicola, a doctoral student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, sees that the need for resources like MaiaLearning is crucial for counselors to aid low-income students.

“School counselors can be especially influential in the decision making process of low-income and first-generation students, whose immediate friends and family may not have significant firsthand experience with the higher education sector,” Nicola said.

Although MaiaLearning is just one resource that students can use to streamline the process, the countless benefits of using the different tools on the website are unmatched. In having a way to decide what career may be right for you and also which colleges best suit your needs, the platform’s many features can make the process easier for both you and your counselor by saving a lot of time. Jenny Rickard, the CEO of the Common Application, describes how using college application resources can impact a student positively.

“When we build a college-going culture in our schools, communities, and social circles, we can truly show young people what’s possible. We can change the culture of the college and career planning process from one of complexity and dread to one of simplicity and joy,” Rickard said.