I should have some fee waivers for a certain amount of schools, but I don’t think it will cover all 20. Can I apply separately for waivers at each school? How much does sending my scores cost if I took the SAT reasoning test 3 times, and the subject test twice? If I know I want to submit my score to all 20 colleges directly after I take a test, can I write down the college codes on the SAT somewhere and avoid paying for score reports later? I’m a tad confused, and any tips could be greatly appreciated.
I don’t think you can get fee waivers for the SAT from schools.
You can send 4 free score reports for using a SAT test fee waiver. You can also list schools when taking the test, did you use that feature for any schools?
What are the 20 schools? All public, or private that have generous need based aid? If they are private you are going to have to probably file the CSS profile in addition to FAFSA. Sending the CSS costs money too, I think you can get the fee waived for up to 8 schools.
So if the schools don’t look affordable, it might not be worth applying.
Did you run net price calculators on college websites?
Do you have any financial safety schools?
Can you get a part-time job to help pay for some of these costs?
How about if you don’t apply to 20 schools? That is nuts.
@mommdc I have not sent in any scores yet because I recently retook the SAT and wanted to send in my best score, however I did not realize that most schools required me to send in the score report of every SAT test taken. I used fee waivers for my SATs and I will be using a fee waiver for the ACT which I will be taking in a couple of weeks. Hopefully I score better on that so I do not have to pay as much to send my scores in (since I will only take it once).
The schools I am applying to are:
University of Washington-seattle (safety)
UCLA
UC Berkeley-pretty bad financial aid
Rice
Carnegie Mellon
Cornell-(I know I would get full ride if accepted due to my families income, don’t know if this applies to other ivies)
MIT
Caltech
Harvey Mudd
University of Texas-Austin
Notre Dame
Wellesley
Brown
Princeton
Stanford
Yale
Harvard
and I was thinking about applying to Duke
I would get a part-time job if I needed to. I work three jobs now.
Also I have applied to an insane amount of scholarships, and I expect to get full-tuition covered for UW, and possibly a good amount for out of state colleges if I get accepted to one.
@intparent I am nuts. I already wrote all the essays :)) The only thing holding me back is paying for sending in the scores.
As far as I know the SAT score report includes all previous SATs taken. If you don’t use score choice.
Are you instate for CA? If not the then the UCs won’t be affordable.
You really should try and trim this list before sending all of these applications.
I really want to get into a top-school and I wouldn’t feel satisfied if I didn’t even try to apply. I have already gone through all the hard work to get where I am now (studying all summer for SAT’s, spending late nights perfecting essays, spending hours upon hours researching about the college application process), and I feel like I have a chance for some of my reach schools. How much would all these SAT fees theoretically cost? I would be willing to invest a bit of my money for the chance at a better undergraduate experience. I have saved up for the past three years.
@mommdc Oh yeah, that’s right, the score report has all the past tests so that means I have 8 schools covered already. I feel like I am a sure-in for UW, and it is a great school to have as a safety, but people tell me I should have more than one safety. I would prefer to go to any of the schools I listed over UW (except Wellesley and maybe UCLA). The UC application just makes it so easy to apply to other UC’s, but I guess I could cut those out with UT-austin (I just really like a cs honors program they have there but I have almost no chance of being accepted as an OOS applicant).
Good luck.
So I have 4 score reports covered from what is now 14 schools I am applying to. That leaves 10 more score reports that need to be paid for. I believe they cost 11.25 each? $112.50 total
But then I have the subject tests. 8 score reports will be covered for these (4 prior to taking the test, 4 after through the fee waiver). That leaves 6 score reports needed. $67.5 total
All together sending in scores would cost $180. I feel like that is totally doable and worth gambling for an awesome undergraduate experience.
I used 2 different fee waivers for 2 SAT reasoning tests, and in the mail I received 8 paper college application fee waivers in a booklet.
If I use these do they cover the score reports as well? Can I use all 8 or only 4?
(on the collegeboard website it says, “If you registered for the SAT or an SAT Subject Test using an SAT fee waiver, you’re automatically eligible to receive four college application fee waivers.”)
I am pretty confused with this whole thing. Any clarifying information will be happily absorbed.
Though you did not disclose your stats to us, but that does not really matters … as no matter what your status are, none of the other schools in your list (besides UW ?) could be a safety for you (or for anyone!). You need to have atleast 2 safeties!
^^Agreed. I’ve lurked on CC enough to know that you need at least a couple of safeties, both academic AND financial. Also, the schools on your list have such different personalities, I wonder if you just pulled schools from the US News & World Reports list. UT Austin, for example, is an immense party school while Caltech is a small and focused STEM school.
No one’s going to stop you to applying to so many schools, but it is a bit ridiculous to apply to so many different top schools who have a variety of environments in the hopes of getting into a few of them.
Edit: from your other post in another thread, you seem all over the place. I know you have a lot of interests, I do too, but what do you really like and what are you looking for in your college experience? From what I’ve seen, everything you’ve done, including your laundry list of ECs and college list, is simply to get into a good school. I say you need to take a little bit of time think and become focused on what you like and what you want to do in order to come off as a genuine person.
Anyway, sorry to distract from the main point of the thread. I really just want to help; good luck 
@latinvibes Thanks for the advice I have many interests, but I really want to go to a school with a very strong undergraduate math program. I based my selection on whether they had strong math or cs programs (sans a couple that had other appealing qualities). I would be extremely happy going to any of the schools I listed.
I absolutely loved the small quirky community at Caltech, however I believe that I would also thrive in large university. I will always be able to join smaller communities, and a large college sometimes offers a greater diversity of clubs and groups.
It is a good reminder to me that I should at least have another “safety” school, in case something goes tragically wrong. If anyone has any opinions on schools with strong undergraduate math programs (strong computer theory courses would be a significant up-factor), please drop them in the comments.
“…it is a bit ridiculous to apply to so many different top schools who have a variety of environments in the hopes of getting into a few of them.”
I would be crying out of sheer joy if I was accepted into even one of these top schools. But I can understand where you are coming from, I will try to trim down my list and put in another safety that I would be content with attending.
Each of these schools really appeals to me for a different reason. I am not looking for a specific “type” of school other than those that can provide me with a strong education in math that will be competitive for graduate school applications. I’m not a person that will get depressed if I don’t get into any school other than my safety, because I feel like I could thrive there as well.
I tried to make sure that my application essays did not look like laundry lists of activities. However, the fact of the matter is that I have a very laundry-list-type-of-life. I hardly ever turn down an opportunity or chance to join a club and am all over the place in terms of extracurriculars. In my essays I really tried to focus on my love for math and interest in computer theory, how it arose, my goals of becoming a professor, and how I hope to positively impact education.
Are you instate for UW then? While you may think it’s your safety, getting into CS is not that easy I thought.
What about the financial aspect. Even if you think finances are not a limiting factor, a lot of kids are devastated in April when they have been accepted but family is not able/willing to pay for the school.
You say you are a financial aid applicant, how much aid do you need? How much if any can your parents contribute?
Yes, some of these schools are very generous with FA, but also very hard to get into and level of aid is dependent on family income and assets.
They also will probably require the CSS profile which also costs to send to schools. Not sure how much, I think $25, and then $16 for each subsequent school.
For the fee waivers, I think you can send four free SAT scores for the SAT test waiver. Probably the same for the SAT 2 test waiver. Then there are four collegeboard application fee waivers. Look for the customer service number on Collegeboard website to get some info.
Some schools also have their own fee waivers you can apply for.
But you need to know if with your family situation you would be able to afford these schools, run net price calculators on the websites to get an idea of aid versus cost.
UCs cost $55k and there is no aid for OOS students.
You could start another thread with your stats and financial parameters and ask for good math/CS safety (admission and financial) schools.
Your research doesn’t seem very thorough if you need financial aid and have UCs and UT on your list, and you are not in-state for them. Same for UW if it is not your home state. Have you skipped running net price calculators?
@intparent @mommdc I am a Washington State resident and can expect no contribution from my parents. Thanks for the reality check! I’ll work on revising my list today. I will no longer apply to any of the UC’s. I have run net price calculators on multiple schools, but did not really come to the logical realization that I would rather walk out of a college with zero debt than have that debt lurking for years after graduation. CCers thank you for being my guidance.
You may have to take on some debt but there is a big diffference in graduating undergrad with $20k in debt and being in the hole for $40k per year (not that you can borrow to cover that gap).
You show wisdom in rethinking your process. Good luck!
You personally can only borrow $5,500 freshman year, $6,500 soph year, and $7,500 per year jr and sr years. Those are your federal loans. If you parents could pay and just won’t, your options are likely limited. If you are low income, then you would likely have some options at schools that meet need. There are schools that give automatic scholarships for stats, too (UAlabama gets a lot of discussion out here).
@intparent My parents can’t pay. Our adjusted gross income is $28,488 and we have two kids in college and 5 people in my family.