<p>I've come across a few (UNC & Dartmouth) websites that direct students NOT to pay for expedited or RUSH sending of SAT or ACT scores -- since it's all an electronic data transfer anyway.</p>
<p>Can anyone, hopefully actual college admissions officials, comment on the seeming lack of utility for this costly option offered by College Board and ACT service?</p>
<p>Basically, are they preying on peoples' fears and just taking money for no added benefit?</p>
<p>“Rush” reporting is a relic. Back in the days before the Internet, there was actually a benefit to rush reporting if you needed to get the scores to a college on short notice.</p>
<p>Basically, they have retained the option. They are not trying to gouge unsuspecting students. There is a benefit to rush reporting for organizations that are not electronically linked. These are primarily Scholarship type organizations. If you are close to the deadline, then you might want to rush report to them.</p>
<p>What they should do, is let schools decide if they want to accept rush reporting, and deactivate rush reporting for those schools. Or, what they should do is deactivate rush reporting for schools they electronically send data to.</p>
<p>In the old days when everything was put on paper and then mailed, rush delivery had a real purpose. Today the testing agencies have three methods a college can choose for delivery of scores: (a) the old put it on paper and mail method, (b) putting the scores on CD ROM disk and mailing the disk, or (c) electronic delivery under which the college sets up an on-line account with the agency and the agency just puts the scores into that account and then the school goes on-line and downloads the scores. Most and possibly all colleges now have the third method. I do not believe there are colleges left in category (a) but there may still be some colleges in category (b) above but both (a) and (b) are discouraged by the testing agencies by charging the colleges extra fees for those methods which fees are not charged if the school has the on-line account for delivery.</p>
<p>Using the SAT as an example, for colleges that have the on-line account, here is what usually happens. For any students who designated the colleges in the test application as ones to receive scores upon release, CB usually puts the scores into the college’s account one or two business days before the scores are released to students on-line (that in fact consitutes the fastest form of delivery). The college then downloads those scores on its own schedule (some do daily, some every other day, some weekly). The longest period of time in that exchange is usually the time it takes for the college, once it has the scores, to match them with your on-line application account with the college and thus show the scores as being received.</p>
<p>For those students who do not order scores sent until they are released to the students on-line, the students have the option of ordering rush or regular delivery with rush being much more expensive. Rush delivery will actually save some time but it is not much. Until about three years ago, rush deliveries were actually mailed even if the college had an electronic account and thus rush delivery could actually take longer than regular electronic delivery. Now a rush delivery is also done electronically by putting the scores in the college’s on-line account. As a demonstration of how bureaucracies work, there are still many colleges that have a published rule against your using rush delivery which rule was based on the fact that rush scores were mailed and which rule no longer has any purpose since rush scores are delivered electronically now. </p>
<p>The difference between rush and regular delivery today after scores comes out is usually only the difference in a couple days of placing the scores into the college’s on-line account (regular may take two or three days more particularly around the time right after scores are released and CB receives a very high number of orders to send scores). Net result is that scores are actually delivered to the college within a week or less after you order scores sent whether you order rush or regular. The delay of sometimes two weeks or more in your seeing the scores in your application file with the college is actually mostly caused by the college’s delay in matching your scores with your file. Another thing that shows how bureaucracies work is that despite the obvious speed with which scores are now delivered, CB still warns that it can take 4 weeks or more to deliver scores (I suspect that warning still exists to allow CB to sell more “rush” scores) and there are still colleges that state on their sites that it usually takes four weeks for them to receive scores after you send them. Four weeks or more is only going to happen if something delays the release of your scores such as an investigation to assure your test scores are valid that often happens if you score much higher on an SAT than a previous test you took or the college just takes a long time to match your score with your file once it downloads scores.</p>
<p>ACT is similar except that scores usually are not sent before they are released to you even if you designated the college in your test application. One major reason for that is that ACT’s writing section, which large numbers of test-takers take, does not get completely graded before the regular section and composite scores are released, some get that writing score when they get their composite but others get it in the days after the initial release of scores and some may even wait up to a week. If you took the writing section, ACT does not send (deliver into the college’s on-line account) any scores for you until the writing score is available.</p>