<p>I went through all of this with my son 3 years ago, but now I can't remember the little details. :/</p>
<p>My D is a junior and is signed up to take the SAT on Jan. 23. She has a good idea of what schools she wants to apply to next fall. Should she take advantage of her "free" score reports and send them to four of her schools now, not knowing how she will do on the SAT?</p>
<p>Or should she just wait until after she has taken the SAT once (or twice... we'll see how it goes) and the Subject Tests, and then send all of her scores. The schools on her list either require all test scores, or they superscore by section. So there's probably no need to do "score choice."</p>
<p>I guess my question is, what is really the point of sending scores now, this early on?</p>
<p>No point to send except potential cost of sending later. You get four free reports per test. If you are going to take further SATs or SAT IIs you can wait to send until last test taken and send, using that test’s free sends, all scores, including past, to four colleges.</p>
<p>However, assume you are applying to more than four colleges and some of them require only SAT and do not reject score choice. If you have such schools and don’t mind sending before knowing the score, you can use the current free sends on those schools and if score is good you don’t need to send any more in the future to those schools and thus can use future free sends on other schools.</p>
<p>Personally, unless there is a real financial issue about using free sends, I would not send any score now until I know what it is.</p>
<p>How do you send to National Merit? I didn’t know you could do that! Is it one of the choices on the list when you click on the arrow when registering online? It’s actually too late for my junior – he’s already taken the SAT, already used his free 4, and won’t be re-taking. But it will be good to know in the future – other kids.</p>
<p>Re OP’s question – Do you have a general idea of how your D will do on the SAT? We had a rough idea with each of our kids, based on practice SAT’s and PSAT’s as well as school grades. We were in the ballpark each time. And if you do have a general idea, is that “idea” a good (or “good enough”) match for the particular colleges that pique her interest? If so, then I don’t see what you have to lose by taking advantage of the free scores.</p>
<p>If her scores aren’t what she wants them to be, she’ll be re-taking anyway and can re-send for free the second time around.</p>
<p>If they are what she wants them to be, she will have sent them for free and shown early interest in her colleges, plus she’ll have one more college app step out of the way.</p>
<p>If she re-takes and they STILL aren’t good enough to get in her colleges of choice, then what has she lost? If the choices are ‘don’t send and forego the 4 free scores,’ or ‘send to colleges that won’t accept her anyway (given this last unlikely possibility) and “waste” the 4 free scores,’ well that sounds like 6 of one or ½ dozen of the other to me. Either way, you’re back at square one where you’ll have to pay for 4 scores. In one case, you were forced back to square one. In the other case, you chose to be there.</p>
<p>I say take advantage of the free scores. Most colleges (at least when my last son was looking) either superscore (take the highest individual scores she earns over several dates) OR take the best overall score by test date if they don’t superscore. So really, what’s to lose by sending for free?</p>
<p>^ Do colleges start a file for prospective students this early? She’s a junior. She hopes to have scores well within the ballpark for the schools she is looking at. I think she’s worried she might do poorly on the first SAT. She’s always been an excellent test-taker, so I think that worry is unfounded.</p>
<p>Yes. Some colleges definitely start files on juniors. I know there are files on my junior at some of his colleges of interest, and there were files on another son too at his colleges of interest in his junior year. I don’t know if ALL do. But I’m positive that some do. Some keep a record of every single contact beginning with the first contact!</p>