I can’t choose between rush and free score reports. Universities that I have contacted told me not to use the rush option because if I choose their university as a score recipient before seeing the score myself they will get in time.
But I don’t know if Collegeboard is going to send all of my scores? (All SAT 1’s and my Subject Tests?)
Can I only send the last SAT result using the free report??
Also, do colleges get Rush scores before the free reports?
Help Please!
Are you a senior? If you are and you have colleges making decisions late December/early January I would make sure to do the 4 free score reports for your schools making decisions at those times because they will see the scores sooner. If not, it does not really matter.
Cannot tell from your post your current status on sending scores or even what test for the free sends you are talking about, but be aware of the following:
For any given SAT test date, you get four free sends. To actually get those four free sends, you need to identify the applicable colleges in your test registration as ones to receive scores autonmatically upon release. If you do that for a particular test, then typically about a day before you even get the scores on line, CB will send the scores via electronic transmission into an internet file that the college has with CB, and thus both sending and receipt of the scores typically occurs at the same time, a day before you get the scores on line. That is the fastest form of delivery for a test just recently taken. Moreover, the scores CB sends are the applicable scores for the test from that test registration plus all prior SAT or subject test scores it has for you. That will occur unless, when designating the free send colleges, you exercised score choice by knowingly unchecking one or more of the prior tests, in which case those chosen will not be sent. Thus, in this process, understand that all test scores get sent unless you chose otherwise and nothing will be sent until just before the test scores for that latest test are released.
In essence, if, for the December test, you identified four colleges in your test registration to receive them upon release and did not unckeck any proior tests when doing that designation, then all your scores will be sent to the four colleges you designated most likely next week, a day befroe you get them on line.
However, to actually get those free sends, you had to identify the colleges in your test registration by no later than the ninth day after the test, meaning for the December test, you had only until December 12 to identify the four colleges in your test registration. If you failed to do that for the December test, then you no longer have any free sends. Moreover, you cannot now possibly order the December scores sent until after tney are released on line, at which time you will be able to send them to colleges for a fee per college; For that kind of send, CB will also send all scores it has for you unless you uncheck a test to prevent it from being sent. Note that you could order now prior tests sent but not the December test, but to do that you would need to go into a prior test registration and oder the prior scores sent for a fee per college.
Ordering rush scores is something that can be done only after scores for a test have been released and it is not a free send. Thus, for the December test, you cannot possibly order rush scores right now because scores have not been released yet. You could order prior scores sent rush the same way I mentioned above, by going into a prior test registration and ordering prior scores sent. These days rush scores are sent the same way that scores are sent if ordered sent regular delivery, by CB’s transmitting them electronically into an account that the college has with CB. Many colleges state they do not want rushed scores, but usually it is prohibited only if they are not sent electronically. Rushed scores, until a few years ago, were paper reports sent by mail. CB stopped doing that and now rush reports are sent electronically the same way as regular reports. Which brings us to the question as to what advantage does rush sending actually create? The answer is not much, at best the scores may be transmitted a day or two before they would be transmittred via regular delivery.
Finally, you have the issue of when are your scores actually required to be sent to colleges. There are a large number of colleges with end of December or early January application deadlines. Most of those colleges accept test scores that arrive after the application deadline; in fact, many of them even take January scores. If you took the December test and order scores sent next week via regular delivery on the day they are released, it is likely they will be transmitted to the colleges before January 1. but it is possible it could take a little longer. For most colleges that is fine. But you need to check exactly what the colleges state on the issue because there are a small number that require all supporting materials including test scores to be in their hands by the application deadline. Those colleges that require that clearly tell you that on their websites, and it is for those that you might consider sending a rushed score if you failed to designate the college in your test registration as one of your free sends. If you are unclear on whether a college requires scores to be in its hands by the applicaiton deadline, check to see if it accepts the December ACT. If it does, it will accept test scores that arrive after an early January application deadline because it is common for some of the December ACT scores not to be sent until after an early January application deadline.
Free sends are the fastest (for the test you just took).
Rushing is to send scores from old test dates and then yes it’s faster, but most colleges prefer your latest test scores and ‘free sends’ will get to them really quickly.
@MYOS1634 So are the rush scores sent faster or not?
@drusba Can I choose which scores to sent via the four free reports? Or are all the scores sent?
Depends. For many colleges rushing scores these days may get them sent a day or possibly two quicker than regular if the college has daily delivery. But many colleges instead have provided CB with a set day or possibly two per week on which they want CB to put scores into their online accounts and thus rushing scores will typically result in having them sent at the same time as those ordered regular delivery.
@drusba Thanks a lot for your help! What about choosing the scores? Am I allowed to choose which ones I want to send? That’s the biggest problem I am faced with right now because I have one subject test result which is very low and which I don’t even need right now.
Right – some colleges tell applicants specifically NOT to send rush scores-- it’s a data dump anyway.
If you are talking about the December test, you cannot choose to send it at all right now. You have to wait until scores are released. At that time you will be able to exercise score choice and withhold any tests you want to withhold. If you are talking about ordering prior scores right now by going into a prior test registration, then you can exercise score choice and withhold any of those when sending other scores.
However, if you are applying to Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Harvey Mudd, or Georgetown, then be aware that they require applicants to submit all scores for subject tests you have taken besides also requiring all SAT scores if you send SAT. In other words, exercising score choice to wthhold any scores would be a violation of their application requirements.
@drusba I am talking about the January scores. I will send my available selected scores this month. But I am not sure about the January score. Will the free report send them the January score including all the previous scores or? Can I ask them to send January scores only?
Here is what College Board does.
You have two kinds of sends:
If you are talking about Jan 2016 tests, then any order for sending scores you make now and in the future will automatically include those unless you exercise score choice and exclude one or more tests.
If you are instead referring to Jan 2017 tests that you have not yet taken, then either 1 or 2 above will apply depending on whether you are using the Jan 2017 test registration identiication to send them (point 1 above) or instead wait for the scores to come out and then try to send them (point 2 above).