It does not matter if you have the best transcript or excel in your extracurricular activities or your essay is on par with William Shakespeare. Your application is incomplete without your SAT scores.
So how do you make sure your SAT scores are sent satisfactorily, at the right time, and with only the scores you are most proud of? Understand how you can make wise decisions in case something goes wrong.
In this article, I'll provide you with a comprehensive guide to go over the process of sending SAT scores.
After you register for the SAT and for nine days after you take the test, you can send your four free score reports to scholarship programs and colleges. But remember that you'd be doing this without first seeing your scores.
Let's look at the Pros and Cons.
Pros: These four score reports are free.
Cons: You won't be able to see your scores before they get sent out. Meaning you won't be able to use SAT Score Choice to pick which scores colleges see and which they don't see. In the end, your scores will get sent out even if they aren't as good as you'd like them to be.
Important Note: Many schools allow students to self-report their SAT/ACT scores, and only after the students are accepted do they need official score reports.
If you want to apply to schools that fall into that category and wait until you get your acceptance, send an official score report, you have to check out the following method, which I will be covering in the next point.
You can order your SAT score reports through your College Board account after you get your scores.
Let's check out whether you should send your SAT scores after you see them:
Pros: Here, you know all your scores, so you can select only your best scores to be sent out.
Cons: It will cost you $12 to send a score report to a college, and every piece can include several test scores on it. In other words, if you want to send three SAT scores to Harvard University and two to MIT, you have to pay $24. (Students who are eligible for a fee waiver have unlimited free score reports.) Rush reports cost more: $31.
We recommend below when to order additional SAT score reports:
To send scores from an SAT you completed more than a year ago, you must request them from the archives. Each report costs $31, and each rush report costs an extra $31.
You can order SAT scores in two ways:
1. Fill out the Archived Score Report Order Form and send it to the following address:
2. Contact the College Board at (866) 756-7346. Realize an extra $15 fee for ordering scores over the phone.
You can choose whether you want the College Board to send all your SAT scores to or whether you want to use a Score Choice program.
With SAT Score Choice, you can pick which scores you want to send to schools. You can also select individual test dates but not test sections. You can choose the SAT date you wish to send in simple terms, and the College Board will only send out scores from that test.
For example, you took the SAT three times, and the second time you were suffering from it or just having a bad day. You can send only the first and third test scores to colleges with Score Choice.
You can also apply Score Choice to SAT Subject Tests. You can choose which Subject Test score to send to your target colleges.
Let's look at the pros and cons of the SAT Score Choice policy:
Pros:
Cons: You have to go through your target colleges' score submission policies very cautiously. Not able to send all your scores to colleges could land your application in trouble. Check out CollegeBoard's BigFuture site, which mentions the SAT score policies for hundreds of US schools.
In this section, we'll look at how early you could send your scores when to expect scores to reach your colleges, is it reasonable to rush ordering your score reports, and ultimately, what to do if you miss a deadline.
According to the College Board, sending scores early shows colleges that you are very interested. If you first take the SAT your junior year, should you go ahead and send that score to colleges you are interested in?
Sometimes, some colleges ask to prove that an applicant genuinely wants to go to their school; this we call demonstrated interest. But this is something that generally comes into play after you have turned in your complete application, usually as a way to move someone up on a waitlist.
Sending SAT scores early does not give you an edge. It doesn't count as demonstrated interest because if you send SAT scores to a college but haven't applied there yet, the admissions committee will simply save them under your name in a general file until your application comes up.
And not only that. If you send your scores early and are planning to retake the test, you won't get the full benefit of Score Choice since you won't compare your early score with the latest ones.
The official SAT score reports should get to your schools by their respective application deadline. Let's look out what this means when to send your scores. Let's understand the timing of everything that happens after you take the test.
How your last possible test date math looks like this:
Three weeks for scoring + 3 weeks for ordering tests = take your last six weeks before the application deadline.
If you are tensed about beating deadlines, paying more can always help by paying extra for the College Board's rush service. Let's look at the pros and cons of doing so:
Pros: The College Board guarantees SAT scores will be sent out within two to four business days instead of taking few days.
Cons
Important Note: If your deadline is coming soon, it might make sense to pay extra to buy yourself a little more time. Just remember that colleges might not see your scores faster if their delivery preferences aren't set up for priority reports.
Some schools have a clear-cut rule: late application documents disqualify that applicant. For example, the University of Texas's policy cancels the school's guaranteed admission to any in-state students in the top 10% of their class.
In simple words, late test scores are like playing the luck on the horses—you're betting that your application won't get considered until further into the process and that, therefore, your SAT scores still have a chance to get there without issue.
For example, let's see what Stanford University's admissions site warns in regards to testing scores:
"We cannot obstruct the review of an application in anticipation of scores that will arrive after the deadline, nor can we guarantee that late [SAT] scores will be reviewed."
UVA informs out the following if your SAT scores are late:
"There is a chance that we have already started the review of your file before those scores arrive. You should still send those scores. There's a good chance that the scores will be seen at some point in the process."
In the end, some colleges judge applications on a case-by-case basis. In simple, it is a process followed by colleges where an excellent application might be put aside until SAT scores arrive. In contrast, an application that is not a good fit for the school will be rejected even before receiving scores.
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