<p>My S, now a senior, took the SAT for the first time, just to try it, in October of his sophomore year. On that test he dutifully filled out the section that allowed the College Board to sell/give out his contact information. Lots of dead tree and electronic email from colleges followed.</p>
<p>He was too far from applying to college to be interested in the mail. I contacted the College Board to remove his name from their lists and after a while most of the mail stopped. Once he understood how the mail started in the first place he was careful not to fill out such sections in any standardized exam he's taken since. Now I'm wondering if that was a mistake.</p>
<p>He took the SAT a second time in June and has taken the ACT, three SAT subject tests and several APs, with top scores in all but the Writing part of the SAT (740). Is he missing out on anything important because the College Board is prevented from sharing his name and score range information with colleges and scholarship organizations? (I'm assuming they don't just hand over the exact scores.) He has just asked for his SAT score to be reported to the NMSC, but that's all.</p>
<p>Just my opinion, eldest daughter had collegeboard send her information wherever and our mailbox was bombarded with information from all sources. (three years later, she still receives solicitations) All the schools in which she applied were ones she contacted for more information. D2 checked the NO box and has not been bombarded with excess mail. She's contacted a wide variety of schools and asked for more information. Perhaps she's missing something, but some how I doubt it. I can not see any benefit.</p>
<p>For a high scorer, some colleges will actually try to recruit you by offering you application fee waiver, pay college visit, invite you to some special programs in addition to sending you materials about their school. In general, I recommend to let College Board to send your name to colleges.</p>
<p>I like to add, my son got invited to apply to Washing and Lee with a fee waiver and to their full ride Johnson Scholarship program. We did not know about Washington and Lee until then. It is one way to find out more opportunities that might interest you.</p>
<p>D did not fill out those sections and still got tons of mail (has now just started college and still gets stuff as if she were a senior in HS). So I am not sure anything is being missed that matters.</p>
<p>My son also didn't receive the mail, and didn't miss it. But I discovered that Presidential Scholar nominations go only to those who have allowed College Board to distribute the info. So if your son's "top scores" include 800's on CR and M, or 35-36 on the ACT, then you should contact CB and let them know he wants to opt in.</p>
<p>Congratulations on getting that mail stopped. We tried and tried and tried, and we STILL get mail (DD is a junior and DS is a grad student). Most of the mail DD and DS got went right into the recyling bin. DD did fill our a few cards for additional information. She didn't apply to one school that sent her unsolicited mail. Neither did DS.</p>
<p>Yes, we hated seeing all the wasted paper. S says he still gets the occasional spam but it did ease up. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time.</p>
<p>FauxNom, thanks for reminding about the Presidential Scholars in case anybody else sees this thread. Forgot to mention that we did catch that late this summer and I tried to follow up. </p>
<p>The ACT folks administer the Scholar program and they apparently get access to the ACT scores regardless. Can't remember what they told me about the SAT scores, but I will check again with the CB to make sure those are part of whatever is involved for the Scholar program. S may need to designate them or something (maybe he did after I spoke to the Scholar program in IA), the way he did for NM. He took both types of exams and got the necessary scores on both.</p>
<p>We parents were both NM, way back when, and, like thumper's D, I didn't apply to a single school that contacted me, so maybe that's why I wasn't concerned when S wanted to avoid the extra mail. Just didn't want our ancient experience to cost S in some way we weren't aware of. I'll keep checking this thread in case there's an important thing like the Scholar program we're missing. Thanks very much for all the advice.</p>
<p>My son opted out, too, and we didn't get the avalanche of mail. He requested information from the schools that interested him and is now at his #1 choice.</p>
<p>"The ACT folks administer the Scholar program and they apparently get access to the ACT scores regardless. Can't remember what they told me about the SAT scores, but I will check again with the CB to make sure those are part of whatever is involved for the Scholar program. S may need to designate them or something (maybe he did after I spoke to the Scholar program in IA), the way he did for NM. He took both types of exams and got the necessary scores on both."</p>
<p>With SAT scores, I called College Board and asked them to allow disclosure of the scores to the Presidential Scholar program. It definitely was not a thing where the program had automatic access to those scores without the disclosure box being checked. Unlike NM, though, you don't need to designate the Pres Scholar program or send scores to them.</p>
<p>To follow up in case anybody comes across this thread and wants to know about the Presidential Scholars issue and score reporting:</p>
<p>If you have told the ACT and/or the CB not to report your scores to anybody, then the Presidential Scholars program will not receive them. The ACT folks who administer the program as subcontractors for DOE said there is no CB code for reporting to the program. They said it would be sufficient to fax them S's original score reports, either or both. Writing scores are not considered for this program.</p>
<p>wisedad - I just spoke to the person who answered the phone, not in any specific department. I didn't mention Pres. Scholar til the end of the conversation, though - just said son changed his mind about wanting CB to share his scores with interested parties. Maybe this more generic approach made it easier, without invoking the complication of any specific awards program (this one's not so well known by many). Anything with CB has got to be easier than calling the DOE, but more power to you if you can get through to the right person there!!</p>