Double check that SAT scores have been sent. Plus ranting about College Board

Applying to College
1

Please have students double check that SAT scores actually got ordered by checking on their College Board account!! You can only order 4 at a time (?!) and you may get charged even if the order didn’t go through.

Ordered scores to be sent to 14 schools over a week ago via College Board website. Need to meet Nov 1 early action deadlines plus a couple earlier deadlines for scholarships. Credit card was charged, I crossed the task off my ridiculous to-do list, and left for an international trip.

Facetimed with son to make sure everything was squared away when he submitted his common app yesterday. Mentioned he should double check on the SAT scores. There is no record of the scores even being ordered, despite the fact my card was charged.

I’m still abroad, so I had to stay up late today to call College Board. I had the most frustrating experience. I’ll rant more in a comment but suffice to say that they accepted no responsibility and offered no solutions. I don’t have a refund from the botched order, and to top it off, I ended up placing 3 separate rush orders for an extra $31 each for nearly $100 in rush fees for something THEY screwed up. At least the orders are “processing” now.

I am unfailingly polite to employees who serve me. Like seriously seriously, even when they suck. The customer service rep (on call #2) HUNG UP on me when I asked if it would be possible to speak to someone that could waive the rush fees. She was in the middle of putting my order together and didn’t even know what she was doing. I know she hung up rather than a dropped transfer because it happened while I was still finishing my sentence and I could tell she was frustrated that I was asking. It was an Indian call center and I do think her hands were likely tied and she had almost no knowledge about how any of this works.

My son said that all the guidance counselors loathe College Board. I have loathed them for many years and BOY this is not helping.

2

The other thing to verify before ordering scores is that the colleges actually require score reports with the application. Most colleges allow self-reporting on the application. Sending score reports where not required is a waste of time and money.

For those colleges that actually require a score report, verify that rush delivery is needed. There should be no college with an 11/1 deadline that requires scores ordered on 10/14 to be rushed. Many colleges will say explicitly that rush ordering is unnecessary. Most colleges give a grace period for test scores. It is, of course, the responsibility of the applicant to verify the university’s requirements

5 Likes
3

Now for the rest of my rant:

• Call center Rep #1 had no firm idea but thought that perhaps you could only order 5 scores at a time. Kept trying to say there’s no way the order was placed. I said it must have been because I got charged. Then she said it was a pre-auth hold. I said it had been fully processed over a week ago. Then she said I’d get an automatic refund on my card within 1-3 days of the order. I said “it’s been a week and there is no refund so I don’t think it’s coming.” Told me I MIGHT get an email about a refund. But for now I should re-order the scores, 5 at a time.

• I went to re-order the scores and realized I should probably rush them, not realizing til I saw a “Rush shipping” option that the standard scores take more than a couple days. Had assumed it would be fast since they’re ELECTRONIC. Realize I don’t want to pay $31 rush fee for 3 different orders, so decide to call back.

• Rep #2 said I can order all the scores at once. Says the 5 at a time thing is unnecessary and there’s no limit. Couldn’t help me with a refund or any waivers for rush shipping. Told me that she could help me get the order placed over the phone, and I’d only have to pay 1 rush fee for all the schools. She couldn’t manage to look up any schools for me, so I looked up all the school codes to give to her. Once she added school #5, she said “oh, you can only send to 4 schools at a time”. For 14 schools, that meant 4 rather than 3 rush orders. That’s when I asked again about waiving the rush fee, which led to her hanging up on me.

• Scores are all sent electronically. The website (sort of) says standard “shipping” is 1-2 weeks. Rush “shipping” (for $31 extra per order of up to 4 schools) takes 1-2 business days. But Rep #2 said “rush” takes 2-4 business days, as does the confirmation email, and that “standard” takes 2-3 weeks. So we’re looking at maybe Wednesday of next week for a scholarship deadline of Oct 15th. Cool. Whatever.

• How can it possibly take that long to send those dang scores electronically? It’s a racket.

• I didn’t end up sending the rushed scores to the schools that I could find definitive proof on the current website that they allow self reporting. There weren’t many that said that so I still had to do 3 separate orders. It can be surprisingly hard to find that info.

• College Board has NO info about the limit on number of schools per order. I certainly didn’t get an error or anything on the original order. The emails all go to my son’s account, so I would have had to ask him to check for an absence of an email or something? He received no emails. I placed the order rather than having him do it because I needed to use my credit card.

• I HATE the College Board and have for many years. S23 opted out of the PSAT in 8th, 9th, and 10th grades and his guidance counselors were totally flummoxed at first but admitted his reasoning made a lot of sense. One even said she might have her kid opt out. When he has taken College Board tests he has only filled out the actually required questions (though they make it seem like all the student info questions are required) so as not to get harassed by the marketing from hell. I swear to god they’ll have a PSAT for 6th graders any day now.

1 Like
4

Thanks for this… we didn’t realize how long it takes for the college board to respond. S23 is doing 8 EA/ED with a due date of Nov. 1, so that means we need to send them now.

1 Like
5

Yeah, I know you’re right, but we don’t have the time to do that right now unfortunately. I’m halfway around the world, son is slammed with school/work, spouse is slammed taking care of other child with issues–you get the picture.

There is an Oct 15th scholarship deadline for a school that requires official scores. The time it would take me to figure out exactly who needs what and when is worth more than the rush fees right now, unfortunately.

I just wish this all this info was more easily accessible. And if I would have known how long the SAT score reports usually take, I would have ordered them as soon as my son finalized his list. But alas, here we are and the main problem has been solved with money and angst, as is often the case.

6

i just double checked some of the schools we’re looking at… Virginia Tech and UVA accept scores up to like two weeks after ED/EA deadline.

Purdue does not though… everything needs to be in by Nov. 1

2 Likes
7

UMD is another school that needs everything in by Nov 1.

4 Likes
8

Of the 14 schools D22 applied to, only 2 required official score reports. Everyone else accepted self reported scores.

9

Oh I so wish it was only 2. I checked on them all before I made the original order. My son is not applying to very selective schools, but I could only find proof on 2 of 14 schools’ websites that they permit self-reporting. I spent a good hour during a chaotic day trying to look it all up. In retrospect, I think I initially only ordered 12 rather than 14 because of that (couldn’t tell you since I have no proof of the order). At the time it didn’t matter whether or not the schools would technically accept scores after Nov 1, because I thought they’d all be there before that.

So when I did the re-order, I ordered rush reports for all 12 because I didn’t have time to investigate Nov 1 vs Nov 15 nuances. It would have frayed my nerves even worse to have to make all those phone calls or possibly screw it up again. So I just did them all except the 2 that stated explicitly that they allow self-reporting.

10

I’ve done more than 4 schools at a time, FWIW, recently even.

That said, the website sucks and rarely works. I have had the same experience multiple times – accepts my credit card, acts like it’s done but doesn’t actually do it or have any history of the transaction afterward. When I check the credit card it usually eventually shows both a charge and a credit. This is SOP for their website. I usually end up having to do phone support, which has US business hours despite being farmed to an offshore call center. Their standard reply is that “the website is undergoing system upgrades.” I asked how long has the upgrade been going on for and they said “months” and how long until it was supposed to be completed and they said “not determined yet.” Which means it isn’t “upgrades” so much as busted and College Board is too cheap to fix it. End of the day, the only way the schools every get done for me is to buy them over the phone with an agent.

11

Interesting. Mine is too and I found the majority of the very selective schools allowed self reporting. there were some odd exceptions.

12

Too late for OP, but Compass Prep has a good list of schools that allow self-reporting, with hot links to the website citation. Colleges that Allow Self-Reporting of SAT and ACT Scores - Compass Education Group

2 Likes
13

I started with this list and then confirmed on the school website.

1 Like
14

I also found those lists quite helpful, until I clicked on one of the links, it led to a dead page, and then I found the correct page that said they don’t accept self-reports. I can’t remember any more which school it was but at that point I got frustrated and just did one-by-one searches for each school. There was at least 1 other school that had an unclear statement about score reporting. It seems schools have focused so much on test optional that it dominates the instruction pages and some don’t even mention official or self reporting at all. This is why I was afraid to screw it up!

2 Likes
15

We did one-by-one searches for each school, too. It turned out that about half of S23’s schools require official scores. He ordered them and had them sent rush because he wanted Pitt to start reviewing his app right away. He was able to see the scores appear in the Pitt dashboard two days later, so we know they were actually sent quickly (at least to Pitt).

Yes! That was frustrating. We went to so many pages about schools’ test optional policies…

Now he is going through the same thing with official transcripts. About half of his schools want those sent. His HS counselor said, “we send those through the Common App,” but not all of his schools are on the Common App, and some schools list specific instructions for how they are supposed to be sent (specific email address). So now this is another thing he is trying to figure out on a school-by-school basis.

16

OP - Not sure I kept up on your financial implications, but if you are missing the refund CB should be processing, dispute the charge with your cc company. Tell them it was a redundant/duplicate charge, or that the service wasn’t provided, they will credit you for it since CB won’t. Sometimes called a charge back when it’s for service not received. You can usually do this online. I get it’s not the money, but there may be some personal satisfaction, as chargebacks hit the company.

4 Likes
17

And i hate to be the voice of doom…but we did one rush order for one college for one of our kids. It took WAYYYYY longer than 2-5 business days for the school to receive it. We know…because we called every day.

And my kid was in a batch of SAT scores that were somehow disputed and not released…and the scores were needed for EA applications. We eventually got them, and the colleges knew about the scoring issue with that test date so waived the timeline. BUT my blood pressure sure rose on that one!

1 Like
18

The other wild card (beyond CB) is that some schools don’t download test results coming from CB/ACT daily, some do it less often…every week, or less often.

1 Like
19

Not sure if you sent already but UVA and VT have self reported scores. No need to send until you commit to either school.

1 Like
20

Thanks, yeah, we just noticed that this weekend. Makes it a lot easier.