D is applying to 2 schools EA that have Nov deadlines, and 2 schools that use rolling admissions that she also plans to apply to in the same time frame. She took the SAT last spring and did well for her. Her current scores are above 50th percentile for two of the schools and above 75th percentile for the other two, but we are hoping for merit money. One of the four is moderately selective, the other three have greater than 50% acceptance rates.
In order to maximize her scores for the merit money, she will be retaking the SAT in October. She wasn’t originally planning to do this, but she got a free SAT retake because of the timing issue and decided to see if she could improve. Since anything can happen, we don’t want to send the scores out automatically just in case she doesn’t do as well. But, if we wait until the new results come out before sending anything, it will be the end of October. My understanding is that CB takes several weeks to send scores out after requested. So the schools may not get them until the end of November. This will be after their deadlines.
So now the questions. Should she send her current results now, and then update with the new results in late October if they are better? If we send her current results, and then she sends a new better set, will they automatically reevaluate her application with the new information? Maybe if this happens, she should e-mail her admissions rep to let them know that a new better set is coming? I don’t want her to send the old ones and have them overlook new better ones when determining awards but also don’t want to miss the deadlines.
lol people make the biggest deal out of the smallest things (don’t worry, this was me when I applied to college too).
honestly, there’s no benefit in you sending your scores now (what are they going to do with your score in July?), so you may as well wait. Most EA colleges accept October SAT scores, and are well aware that they may get there past the deadline, so don’t sweat it. (you will want to check on each individual college’s policy on this though)
Also for what it’s worth, even though CB may say that it takes weeks for scores to get there, it my experience they never took more than one week (I didn’t rush any of them).
Make use of the free score reports in October test. Those free reports will include all previous scores too. So you don’t need to send them now. If you wait till seeing the October score before ordering the report, there is a chance to be too late for some November 1 deadline schools. It typically takes a week to process the score report order, but when it is close to those popular deadline (e.g. Nov 1), it may take extra days. If she is going to submit to more than 4 schools, she may pre-order those with the extra cost. Nevertheless, for some EA/ED schools that are very straight about deadline, submitting current score is a good idea. For instance, for UMich, they will accept late score if you have your application complete (i.e. with score, transcript, LOR, etc submitted).
In my opinion for applications to selective colleges it’s best to “see” the test scores before submitting them. So while free score reports may save a bit of money and perhaps get the scores to the colleges faster than the “standard” send the prudent option is to review the scores first and then, if necessary, to “rush” send them selectively. In the scheme of colleges costs the extra costs associated with a priority send are minor.
@fogcity OP already has good score, it is not likely to bomb the second attempt. Any small downward change would not be an issue at all. If one really worries about that, one can choose safety schools and schools that want all scores for the free report. It is never be the “best” to wait for the score first if there is a chance of missing the deadline. For the schools that say they will accept October score for EA/ED, it does not mean they will wait a few weeks until they receive your score report. It means the official score sent directly from the test agent should arrive on time.