Sending SAT Scores

Hi, I’m so confused with the process of sending SAT scores to colleges!

College Board offers sending your scores to any college you want, but I feel more comfortable sending them myself. I don’t want College Board to automatically send my scores because I can score really low. But if I don’t choose this option that College Board offers, will I be able to view my scores and send them later on? Will they send me my scores? Or is it better to send them all with College Board? What do universities prefer?

I don’t know what to do and I’m a little confused… If I choose to send the scores myself, do I send them with the admission app to a specific college or I send them before I fill the admission app? HELP

College board will send 4 score reports for free but that is before you view the results. After you receive your results, you can send them yourself but College board will now charge for each report you send $12. You self report your scores on the application but you need to send an official report from CB for each school. You can send before or after your application, but before the school deadlines.

So I will pay 12$ for each official report from CB to each university?.. I understand that if you send scores to a school, other schools have access to them right? So I will not have to pay huge amount of money for each score I send to each different school?

You get four free sends per test that must be chosen within nine days after a test is taken and thus before scores are released. If you do not designate in one test and take another later, you get four free sends with that subsequent test and can also send with that test score your prior tests.

However, if you are going to wait until after getting a score before sending anything, that $12 fee is per college. And no, most colleges are not hooked up with each other to see your scores if you send to one. The only ones I know of for which you can send scores to one college and the rest will also get them are the UC’s and separatetely the CSU’s. You need send only one set of scores to a UC to ceover them all and one set to CSU Mentor to cover all of the CSU’s… Otherwise, for other colleges, it is a charge per college.

Oh ok, thanks! Can you explain what are the UC’s and CSU’s?

UC’s = all the University of California campuses; CSU’s = all the California State Universities including the California Polytechnics.

My daughter is a rising junior, taking SAT for first time in Oct. We don’t even know which schools she wants to to apply to yet. Are we obligated to send all scores to each college she ends up applying to? And is it common for juniors to send out the four free test scores offered by the college board? Thanks!

Neither of my son’s sent their test scores until it was time to apply for colleges, especially if they were taking the tests for the first time. It does save you money, but if you are unhappy with the scores, they are already out there for the schools to see.

I woudn’t use their 4 free ones because what if you arent happy with the scores. What if you end up taking the ACT and score better on it. 12$ is a small price to pay for the peace of mind in my opinion.

hsparent: for most colleges, you will need to provide either an SAT test or an ACT test, and for some SAT subject tests (two, except Georgetown wants three). There are some test optional colleges and for those you are not required but have the option to provide test scores. For those that require scores, you usually need to have the testing agency send an official score report but there are still some colleges that accept scores provided on the applicant’s high school transcript.

As to your question about “all scores,” if you mean the composite and all the section scores on a single test, yes, and that is the only way a test will get sent by the testing agencies, e.g., you cannot eliminate a bad wrting score on an SAT and just sent the math and reading scores. If you mean whether you have to send all the tests you have taken, then that depends on the college. Most allow you to send a single SAT test or ACT test even if you have taken multiple tests. A small number require you to send official scores of all SAT tests you have taken, some of those also require all ACT tests, and some all SAT subject tests. For the colleges with such "all scores’ rules see my posts in this thread: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/18732296#Comment_18732296 Many of those that do not have an all scores requirement often recommend you send all SAT scores because it could be to your advantage since they superscore the tests – use the highest section scores from the multiple tests to determine admission – and a smaller number superscore ACT tests.

As to whether most juniors use the four free sends on an SAT taken junior year, I do not believe there are any statistics that tell us whether they do. The only ones I feel should do that are those who want to avoid paying the extra fee to send tests after scores come out. You do not need to send scores until you apply to a college.

Thank you all for your replies! Very helpful.