<p>DS is a junior who will take ACT with writing next month. We are talking about how to best use the 4 free scores.</p>
<p>DS is thinking about econ as the major, has a decent GPA and his first try on ACT w/o writing was not bad. He would like to apply not more than 8 schools.</p>
<p>Since we don't know how good his score will be, I am thinking that no sending the score to those schools where a couple of point could make a difference. </p>
<p>His list stands now includes school for sure he will apply: Stanford (SCEA) and State U. </p>
<p>Schools under consideration are: CMU, Cornell, Duke, Emory, NW, and Swarthmore. </p>
<p>So, teh question is: do we withhold sending to anyone until we know the score?<br>
Or, we send use the 4 freebies?<br>
if we do, which school is less picky about students taking the test more than once?</p>
<p>With our son, we all chose not to use freebies. Wanted to wait to see scores first, for the obvious reasons. We felt if a fellow can afford thousands for sons' education, we could afford a few bucks to send scores.</p>
<p>Son picked a few schools to send score to, but in retrospect, I'd have advised waiting until scores in to send (worked well for him, good score, but why risk it, esp if SAT turns out to be an awesome score & you dont' need the ACT?).</p>
<p>I'd wait and see all results first. Even with a good score, child might retake and get a great score the second time. Why not just send in the great score later, even to State U where you might qualify for a scholarship. Stanford might require self reporting all scores next year, but with the others you might only have to submit your best score. Have your child prep using a stopwatch as the ACT is very time sensitive and you must learn to move through it quickly. Good Luck!</p>
<p>A contrary view: S used his freebies to send to schools that valued "showing the love" and to his flagship where he hoped to get merit $$. We were fairly confident he would be a "one and done" given his PSAT, so he didn't worry about the colleges seeing the score before he did.</p>
<p>We wound up resending to everyone anyway when he took his last SAT-II in fall of senior year.</p>
<p>We followed much the same strategy as CountingDown - use the freebies to show the love to schools known to pay attention to demonstrated interest. On your list, that would be Swarthmore and possibly CMU.</p>
<p>Harriet, agree with CMU and Swat, but would add that Emory is VERY much into yield management. Dad II, they are also explicit that they want applicants to visit and pay homage before they accept you.</p>
<p>We did not use the freebies, either. S1 went to the only school he applied to. S2 applied to 4 schools so it was not too bad paying for the fee to have the results sent to them.</p>
<p>we were advised not to send any scores and see how he did. ACT's are/were unique in that you send the scores you choose to colleges. It made a difference for us between the two times son took it.</p>
<p>How long do you have to change your mind after the test? Is it nine days? Ds didn't send to any schools, but now I'm thinking that maybe he should to the safeties.</p>
<p>Agreed....you should have some admissions safety school(s) on the list where even a lower ACT would be acceptable. Send the scores for free to those schools.</p>
<p>Thank you all, especially the tip about showing love. So, I will go home and discuss with DS about sending the freebies to: CMU, Emory, and Swarthmore, plus state U.</p>
<p>The situation is that our State U ranks very well in econ in the country (18th, I believe) and DS already got the stats (GPA, class ranking, and ACT) to get into their honor. So, we are only applying to highly regarded schools. U of Chicago is one of the best in Econ but we did not get a good impression during our visit. Not any OOS publics because of possible lack of merit $$ for OOS students.</p>
<p>Again, thanks for your inputs. If everything goes as plan, we might take a road trip passing CMU to Philly and Princeton during the spring break.</p>
<p>I'm surprised you didn't like UChicago on your visit. I think it makes an awesome impression, despite some of the surrounding areas. If your son is serious about econ, I would take another look. Please keep in mind that a tremendous amount of college students change their majors- multiple times- and econ is a major that is frequently abandoned because high school kids really have no idea what it means to actually study economics.</p>