<p>I'm planning on taking the SAT in October of my Junior year [this October]. I feel like I've done more than enough prep over the summer, and am worried that if I wait too long [i.e., Spring], I might get a little rusty. </p>
<p>My question is, how exactly should I choose to report my SAT scores? According to the online registration forms, "the first four score reports are included with your registration fee. There is a charge if you request more than four score reports." So should I send score reports to my top 4 colleges? Do I have to send one to my high school? Do I have to specify one sent to me? Is it even advised to send a score report without knowing its content?</p>
<p>Thanks, as I realize these questions have probably been answered before, but I couldn't find them by Searching the forums.</p>
<p>You and your high school will get the report automatically--the free score reports don't include those, they are for colleges you designate.</p>
<p>My daughter designated the 4 schools that she was interested in attending which had the lowest scores. She assumed her scores would be high enough to not "scare off" those schools, but if they would turn out to be lower than she hoped, she didn't want to send them to the schools with the highest averages until she had a chance to retake and raise the scores.</p>
<p>^ I think this is a great strategy. You don't know what your scores will be until you take the test, so it's risky to send the scores to your "reach" schools. But you don't want to waste those free score reports, either. So I think sending them to your "safety" and "match" schools makes a lot of sense, and especially to safeties and matches that aren't at the very top of your wish list (but where you expect to apply). Once you see your scores, you can decide whether to pay to have them sent to your reach schools and to the schools at the very top of your wish list, or whether you need to re-take the test to try to up your scores before sending them to your top schools.</p>
<p>"My daughter designated the 4 schools that she was interested in attending which had the lowest scores. She assumed her scores would be high enough to not "scare off" those schools, but if they would turn out to be lower than she hoped, she didn't want to send them to the schools with the highest averages until she had a chance to retake and raise the scores."</p>
<p>My D did the same thing. Every time she took another test, she included them in the free report. I think that may be why she received an email today from St. John's with a special link to a short application, inviting her to apply now and waive the application fee, the essay, and recommendations. She had sent her free SAT and ACT reports to them (and 3 other schools) from her May and June 2008 testing.</p>
<p>You are not required to designate any colleges to receive scores. You can send to four by listing them and will not be charged any additional amount to do so. The difference is that if you choose to send the score later to a college, you will have to pay a fee, per college, to do so. You are a junior who will not be applying until next year for entry class of 2010, and thus you will be part of the first class that will be able to choose which scores actually get sent to colleges if you take the test multiple times. Thus, as long as you are willling to absorb the fee, you might want to consider not sending to any colleges until you know what the score is. If it is not good and you retake later and score higher, you can then send just the later score.</p>
<p>Hmmm. So I should only report to my safeties? [I only have 2 right now] I can absorb the cost of paying to send the scores later, since I don't plan to apply to many reaches/matches [maybe 5].</p>
<p>Didn't want to make a new thread, but I have another question. CB states that if one opts to pay to send scores to a school after the test, they will send all available scores. If that's true, what's the advantage to waiting until after the test to send?</p>