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When to send SAT scores?


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Have your children sent their SAT scores to colleges (for free) on the day they take the tests?

 

Or wait until scores come back to send them?

 

Ds is re taking in August & applying early decision this fall.

His first time taking, his scores were good enough,mbut he's still hoping to bump them up in August.

 

I know about super scoring at some schools, I'm just curious if there a reason one way or the other to "not" check off to sebd them immediately? (Say, Maybe kid gets sick half way through test or something?)

 

Should I just cough up the extra cash to wait & send them all together once scores are back?

Anything I'm not thinking of?

Thanks

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I'm not sure this is the "right" thing to do, but we sent the scores on to some not so selective colleges. We did not send them to the more selective schools or selective scholarships. I wanted the chance to retake the test and then send the scores.

 

Actually, I'm thinking more of the ACT. I think you can choose to send just one score sitting with the ACT, but I am not so sure about SAT.

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I believe that you can choose which scores to send with both tests now.  But some colleges specify that you need to send the scores from all administrations.

 

I would always wait to see the scores before sending them.

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My DD did not know where she was going to apply when she took the tests, so she did not send any scores on test day. She was applying to highly selective schools that wanted to see all test scores. She did not finalize her school list until the summer before senior year.

 

My DS was aiming for not quite as selective schools, had a list of some possible schools by the time he took the test, and sent the scores there. He later sent the scores separately to the schools he ended up applying to, which were not the same schools as the initial idea.

 

If your rising senior is planning on a fall test date, I would have the scores sent immediately because otherwise it may be cutting it very close for early applications.

 

 

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If your rising senior is planning on a fall test date, I would have the scores sent immediately because otherwise it may be cutting it very close for early applications.

That's what I was thinking.

And his first test scores were good enough to send to the schools he's applying to (I "think" the list is complete, we have one more school to visit), so he doesn't "need" higher scores in August, except maybe for scholarships.

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tl;dr  - We did use the free reports when there was somewhere to send them that would use it in the near future.

 

 

SAT tests include up to 4 "free" score reports with each test registration.  You have to designate the receiving schools or scholarship programs before or shortly after the test sitting.  Additional reports are around $12 per report.

 

The score report will list all of the SAT scores and SAT Subject Test scores.  When DS was a senior, we used some of the free reports from Subject Test sittings to get the regular SAT scores out to schools.  (AP scores are a separate report.  APs are typically self-reported on applications until the student actually decides which college they are attending and asking for credit from.)

 

Part of the decision depends on timing.  For a sophomore or early junior year test, you may not get much out of sending the score early.  We tended to send those scores to places that had summer programs for rising seniors.  The applications were in Dec-Mar of junior year, so the early scores could help there and were kept on file for admissions.  

 

When the Score Choice option was introduced, I went through the info for a lot of the colleges my kids were looking at.  Most of their schools did some kind of super scoring (taking best sitting or best individual section score).  If they are using the highest score or highest sitting, then I couldn't see what benefit the Score Choice would be.  As far as I could tell, having multiple scores wasn't going to hurt them.  I concluded that Score Choice was mostly a money maker for College Board.  I think it markets to families and students who are applying to highly selective schools and are trying to control as many aspects of an uncontrolled process as they can.  I'm dubious that Score Choice really helps most students (even those using it for selective applications).  The Score-Use Practices document is here.  [Alphabetical, but you can use CTRL F to search for specific schools.]  

 

My most recent graduate bridged the SAT revision so he had both old test and revised test scores.  He even still has the middle school talent search score on his record, because we asked for it to be retained instead of purged.  This student had a lot of test scores, partly because the SAT revision caught up with him and meant that he had to take another SAT, even after he had scores he was happy with.  None of the schools he applied to seemed to be bothered by his having several scores or having scores back to 7th grade.  

 

This document has a sample score report (pp 12-13)  I am pretty sure that college receive the same info, though possibly in a data format that goes directly into the student's application profile.  

 

 

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