MaiaLearning is a new and improved college application site that District 211 has adopted as its primary platform for college planning and applications this year. Through the app, all students can now find all the college-related information they need in one place.
MaiaLearning has, in part, been introduced as a replacement for prior apps such as Xello and the Student Readiness Plan. Because of this, it contains features that are helpful to all four grades of students rather than just seniors. For example, freshmen or sophomores can use the site to organize their four-year plans, while juniors can access career tests and databases of college statistics.
One of the main focuses of the app is the college recommendation feature. This allows students to continuously update a “brag sheet” – a list of their achievements – that helps teachers and counselors get a better understanding of their high school career. Furthermore, students may add their counselors’ or teachers’ accounts, allowing them to message each other directly and collaborate as the recommendation process continues.
Fremd Counselor Tony Tosh is one of many staff members throughout the district who are affected by the shift to MaiaLearning. Though Tosh is as new to the platform as any other educator, his vital role in the application process has offered him much experience with the app. Tosh recounts how the change has been going from the staff’s perspective.
“So far, it’s been good, and they do a ton of ongoing training, and I have a feeling there’s a ton of features, and we’re just learning them as we need them,” Tosh said. “And particularly college application features. It’s definitely new, but it seems to be working just great.”
Previously, college applications were almost entirely handled on CommonApp. As part of the transition, though, students must now link CommonApp to their MaiaLearning accounts.
Tosh recounts the different yet cooperative relationship the two sites will have with each other going forward.
“CommonApp is where they’re going to do 99% of the work, applying to colleges and all that – Maia [MaiaLearning] is where we as counselors take care of the transcripts, the score reports, other reports, letters of rec.” Tosh said. “So it’s like two features that communicate to each other.”
Applications cannot be directly submitted through either MaiaLearning or CommonApp to colleges that have unique application processes. Some notable examples of these colleges are MIT, Loyola, and Georgetown University. However, the university database still contains the same amount of details on these colleges as it does for any other. These include grades of admittees, population size, financial aid programs, and their separate admissions requirements.
Although the site already has teachers within the district available for recommendations, the process is slightly different for teachers who are no longer teaching or recommenders who are not teachers. For teachers that have retired or moved schools, the district can still contact the teacher for their information to be added into the system, after which students may request a recommendation from them as normal. If the recommender is not a teacher, though, students cannot use Maia and must instead request a recommendation through the “Other Recommender” option in CommonApp.
For more information, students may reach out to their counselors or view one of the introductory videos on the D211 YouTube Channel.
