<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I've been a lurker here for a while -- tons of great information -- thanks to all who share so willingly.</p>
<p>My junior is taking the March SAT. Should we send the scores to schools she is interested in or is it too early to do so?</p>
<p>Thanks!
jersey44</p>
<p>It's too early. ALL SAT scores will be reported by the CB to the schools that are designated by the student. It's better to wait until all tests have been taken and send only one report. Otherwise, your child will need to update the schools every time s/he takes a SAT. It costs money.</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>We sent scores when my son took the SAT as a junior. As it turned out, he only took it once--he is not one for testing any more than necessary--and since you can send four scores for free, I didn't see any reason not to.</p>
<p>If your student takes the SAT again, you can send four free scores with that administration, as well. You only have to pay for the ones beyond those four, or when you have scores sent later.</p>
<p>My daughter decided to have the scores sent to the four colleges on her list that are safeties or safety/match. After all, these reports are free!</p>
<p>If the student is going to take SATIIs, I'd suggest waiting until these are done. Both SAT and SATII will be reported on a single report.</p>
<p>marite-</p>
<p>Good advice. Though there is no harm in sending early, it's probably best to wait. If scores are being sent that early, before a student can even apply to the school, how are the scores filed since the student is not yet an applicant with a file to put them in?</p>
<p>It's fine to send the scores early. Just be aware that more than likely, your student will not apply to at least some of the schools that s/he sent the scores to junior year.</p>
<p>My older S only took the SAT once, and that was spring of junior year. Two of the colleges that he sent scores to in the spring were places that he ended up applying to. The colleges will keep on file the scores that were sent early.</p>
<p>It's true that colleges keep early reports on file; they just become obsolete once new reports come in. It's also true that students often send their freebies to colleges to which they will not be applying. My S took the SAT and SAT-IIs only once, and he ended up applying to only 2 colleges, having gotten in EA; but he had his scores sent to more, as he put in the request only once and at the time, he had 6 colleges on his list. As well, he had them sent for NMF.
I does no harm to send free reports in early. The worst that can happen is that someone actually looks at them and sends your child even more mail!</p>
<p>My son took the SAT twice and the ACT once. He took the ACT first, and he decided to make use of the free reports that ACT offered. Between the time that he took the test and the time the scores were reported, however, he had a great deal of angst about having sent the scores sight unseen. He was pretty nervous about it until his very respectable scores came back. Having learned from that experience, he decided not to send the SAT scores right away. That decision seemed to take some of the pressure off of him, and college entrance tests are nervewracking as it is. Of the schools that he sent early reports to from the ACT, I think he only ended up applying to two. I don't think there's any particular harm in sending them, but for my son, he found NOT sending them prior to his having seen them was a better option for him.</p>
<p>I wish your student the very best on the upcoming tests!! Good luck! ~berurah</p>
<p>Your child should have a list of schools in which they have some interest. Send the early scores to schools that have rolling admissions and/or a firm cutoff in scores, and do not require SATIIs. These would tend to be state schools or the less-competetive schools on the list.</p>
<p>A student can change the designated schools after he/she takes the test. This information is hidden deep in the College Board website:</p>
<p>"Each time you test, you can choose colleges or scholarship programs to which to send your scores. The first four are free when ordered along with your test registration. Please note that you can make updates to the score recipients associated with your registration until the Monday (9 days) after a test through your SAT online account. The four free score sending requests cannot be applied to past, or future, score sending requests or registrations."</p>
<p>It's quite possible to get the test scores and send them only if they are "good enough" for a certain school. When the SATII scores come in, you may want to use some score-report strategy also. Again, send the scores when they are good enough, or maybe "as good as they're going to get."</p>
<p>Remember that the last set of scores you send contains all of the previous scores of SATs and SATIIs. This is not true with ACT, however. There you can select the scores to send by designating the month of testing.</p>
<p>S sent his junior year SAT scores at the time of the test. This worked out very well. If he'd bombed the test (he didn't), he could have always taken it again. The colleges just look at the best scores.
He also took the ACT as a junior and as a senior. All were sent at the time of testing. Everything worked out fine.
The only score he did NOT send was his AP Chemistry test. Upon the good advice of either marite or jamimom, he did not send them so that he could see how he scored first. As it turned out, he scored well. Now he will send that score on to his selected college, as well as the AP tests he'll take this spring. Hope this helps. Good luck.</p>
<p>since an expression of interest is becoming important to some selective colleges, GC recommends sending the free reports to the most selective schools on the kid's early list. Even tho there is no app on file, this 'signals' early interest.</p>
<p>ps -- I meant to say the most selective schools that require the SAT....</p>
<p>DD is taking the SAT in May. She is sending her scores to three schools to which she will likely apply (at this point in time). The reports don't cost anything to send and these schools will get the scores anyway at some point. If she does really well, she might not take the SAT again (unlikely....but you never know!!).</p>
<p>It's free to send the scores so you might as well. If you decide the scores were too low, you can send them again later. If the scores are high enough, you're done. S took it in Jan and Mar of his junior year and figured that was enough.</p>
<p>Thank you everyone. You gave me a lot to think about. At this point, my d is relatively certain she'll apply to four schools that appear to be matches. I guess we'll go ahead and send the scores to those four since the service is included in the price. She hopes to take it only once, followed by the SAT IIs in May. But, of course, only time will tell if that's the best course of action. Thanks again.</p>
<p>I'd say kids should send their first 4 free results to any schools they're thinking of applying to that don't require SATIIs. Then when they take the SATIIs they can send those scores to the rest of their schools and the SATI scores will be included. If all the schools you're looking at require SATIIs, then it doesn't matter one bit. Sending these first scores is just a waste of time.</p>