SAT in Fall of Junior year and retakes

<p>A friend's DD took the SAT in Nov and scored very highly - an 800 on the math portion and high 700s for the reading. She is not planning on taking it again.</p>

<p>However, she was told by a relative who does college counseling that schools will toss out scores from junior year and she would have to have them resent to the schools she selected when she registered. Also, that many would want to see a second set of scores to "validate" the first set. Has anyone ever heard of either of these happening?</p>

<p>She does not need to take the test again. Colleges absolutely will consider a score from the fall of Jr year and I have never heard of a college requiring a student to take the test a second time simply to confirm the first score. If she is thinking of applying to schools that require SAT Subject Tests (SAT IIs), then she should think of scheduling those for the spring of Jr year to coincide with completion of her school work.</p>

<p>As to your first question: I do not know the answer to that but heard something similar from our guidance counselor a couple of years ago. Some colleges clear out the application files during the summer to prepare for new applications. Having said that, I think a lot of students take advantage of sending the four free score reports, so someone out there must know the answer. </p>

<p>Congrats to your friend’s D.</p>

<p>I’m sorry if anyone is paying her relative to do college counseling because that relative doesn’t know what they are talking about. There is absolutely no need to retake an SAT taken in junior year. What does that even mean to “validate” the score? It was fake if she accomplished that as a junior but somehow real if she did that as a senior? </p>

<p>My daughter used her Dec 1 junior SAT for her college applications and all the schools accepted her score; she also used an SAT2 score from sophomore year and there was no problem with that either. I cannot speak to whether all colleges will hold the scores over the summer since she sent most of hers in the fall but I’d be very surprised if they don’t and in any case she should check if they have her scores when she is putting together the rest of her application. I would be very surprised if it’s any issue since many students test as juniors and I’ve never heard of colleges tossing their scores out. Please don’t waste her time and money re-taking the SAT on this completely wrong advice. Just check in the fall if the schools have the scores or if they need to be sent again. Most likely they will have them on file.</p>

<p>Junior year SAT scores definitely count! In fact, in my opinion, it is best to finish it then so you don’t have to worry about the SAT come college app time in fall of senior year. There is also no reason to take the test twice if the score from the first time is good enough. A good score stands by itself. You don’t need to take the test again to validate it.</p>