I think if your kid has taken the PSAT, you know the ballpark of what their SAT score might be. I sent my son’s free scores to colleges that were in the range of the PSAT score. Also, if your kid has taken the SAT more than once and you know how the first one went, he’s not likely to do considerably worse the second time, so you can send the free ones the second time if he’s in range of the school’s average scores. At some schools, the scores automatically appeared in my son’s file when he applied, but for a couple of the schools I had to do some legwork this year to help them track down those scores since I sent them before he applied to the schools.
We used the “free” score sends for D’s safeties. I held off sending to her academically competitive schools until 2nd round. Though as mentioned on the thread posted by halflokum - my D’s were on her transcript anyway.
As soon as my daughters list of schools was (mostly) set, she sent them all scores from her two sittings. She did fairly well and it triggered many of the schools to send application fee waivers. Saved a few hundred dollars which was nice.
@connections - not all California schools put the SAT score on the transcripts. My daughter’s public high school did not.
My daughter’s school counselor just told me the SAT scores are not on the transcript, so there you go. We can pick which we want to send. I thought about having her send her first scores to one school she is super interested in as her PSAT score range (as a guide) would be fine for that school but I was too chicken…lol. Plus its her first sitting and she is about a crazy wreck over her math score on PSAT. So…good Lord only knows what SAT math will be …a hot mess I am sure.
Oh and yes @1998parent15 i see your point about the fee waivers…would be nice to get some of those!
I wouldn’t assume that scores remain the same. In total my d’s sat through 7 SAT’s. For no reason at all one D had get ACT reading score drop from 31 to 24. We had it rescored and they offered no explanation. All of her other scores on reading were 30/31 or 650 to 670. No idea what happened. Plus all of her other scores on the ACT that day ranged from 32 to 35. Who knows? Also had both scores randomly go up. So I’m a believer in having control over what is being sent, since the tests are not all that reliable.
It matters what the reading is about. Sometimes it’s a subject that is interesting. Other times not. My kids were advised to quickly skim and read the most interesting stuff first and be careful with the answers. Save the most boring for last and if you run out of time, pick a letter and fill in the remaining questions with the same letter. Chances are at least 1 will be right and there is no penalty for guessing but a blank is marked wrong regardless.
I know that one of my kids got a reading section that was about something they already knew about. Didn’t really have to read much at all to answer the questions. Left more time for the rest.
^^^full disclosure about what I wrote in #26 above… might have been something in the science reading vs. general. I forget. Memory fading but the rest of what I wrote about quick skim and prioritizing what to spend your time on I stand by as a good strategy. You don’t have to attack things in order.
@uskoolfish, yes, thanks for the clarification. I certainly wasn’t saying that you could send your scores for free. Just that there is no extra charge to use Score Select.
You can receive up to four score reports for free when you register, but I wouldn’t recommend that since you have no idea how the score will be. The savings is not worth the risk of sending colleges scores that could be much less than you want them to be. In other words, to save $11.25, you run the risk of undermining your chances of getting into the college.
For low income students–you can apply for a fee waiver. See your guidance counselor.
Scores can vary depending on the individual test but they are written to be statistically reliable–this means that the same test given over time will produce roughly the same results. This is why if you want to improve your scores significantly, you need to study for the test, which means aggressively review the content and the tricks of the trade. Yes, your score can drop or rise very unexpectedly, but that is almost certainly chance or luck (a passage that you happened to find really hard but others didn’t, a bad cold or lack of sleep, etc).
It seems some schools put their scores on the transcript–I hadn’t heard of this before! But most colleges will require official SAT scores sent directly from CB to them (I looked this up to confirm).
Actually, last year we found that many schools don’t need the official scores unless one matriculates to them if the scores are on the transcript. About 75% of D’s 16-18 (I forget which right now) schools said the ones on the transcript sufficed until that point when I called them.
@myloves, that’s good information to know. Which colleges were they, can you share?
In my own kids’ cases (and students), the colleges they applied to all needed the official transcripts.
I thought they meant you couldn’t simply report the scores yourself. I hadn’t heard of scores on transcripts before!
College Board itself states that “most colleges require official score reports sent directly from College Board.”
Sorry; I didn’t keep the paper on which I recorded that, so I don’t know which schools only needed scores on the official transcript until matriculation. I do know that it was the majority of my D’s list (all of which were ones talked about here–obviously, some more than others). Like I said, it was about 75%. When I called, though, none of the schools were surprised by my question; they all acted as if it was common.
College Board would say that; it is a business, after all.
“College Board would say that; it is a business, after all.”
@myloves, very true!
Now I’m curious what the percentage is. I don’t think they’d lie though that “most” colleges want official scores, but of course, “most” can be 51% or 99%.
Anecdotally, 4 of my kids have been through the college experience now (one of them twice as a transfer), with each sending to 7-13 colleges, & they’ve always had to send official scores. I’ve also had students I’ve tutored over the years, & they too have always had to send official.
But I do wonder about the stats now.
^^^Sent two kids to college. 20 some odd schools between them. All had to have official scores sent.
Wasn’t something I would have wanted to gamble on a last minute… “application not complete so do not pass go, do not collect $200” after everything that goes into getting into an MT or Acting program. Nor to tell you the truth was it something in the greater scheme of things I’d make calls about. What if the person who answered the question was wrong?
I think there are probably better places to save money and time. As an example, the difference in taking the subway to/from JFK to NYC instead of taking a taxi plus eating lunch at a falafel stand instead of a restaurant (or the Chicago and LA equivalents) will probably be the difference between sending official scores and not. Pick your $ battles wisely.
If you didn’t inquire about what “official scores” at each of your kids’ colleges meant, how do you know they didn’t mean that scores could be on the “official transcript” instead of sent to from College Board? I bet that many of the schools would have accepted the transcript scores.
For me, the 15-20 minutes worth of time spent in late summer was no big deal and the around $150 saved was worth it. To each his/her own. There was no “last minute ‘sorry, application incomplete,’” as D kept up with each school, anyway, calling to make sure they had everything they needed, which she would’ve done whether or not a school had scores from the Board–and that also was not at the last minute.
Call me cheap or, more likely, someone who likes to think outside the box… In either case, I thought it was a pretty clever, if not wise (especially since calls were made to schools regarding completeness of applications regardless), way to save a bit in this expensive process. (I can’t claim that I had this idea myself, btw, but I can’t remember where I heard the idea.)
@myloves, that’s an interesting point. Maybe “official scores” means they will also accept it from the official transcript. It’s moot in our case as no school I know here has scores printed on their transcripts. But if you do have scores printed on your transcripts, it sounds like that would be accepted as “official” scores by some schools. Unless of course the school says specifically “scores must be sent directly from CB” (some will say this outright on their website instructions).
I personally agree with @halflokum, that there are other ways to save money, and to me it’s not worth calling up each school and hearing something which might or might not be accurate. But I also hear you myloves, that it’s worth it to you personally to try to see if you can save some money. And yes, to each his/her own.
Of all of the schools we called about it, we never encountered a case in which someone told us inaccurately that the scores could be on the transcript only to later say that D’s file was incomplete due to this. I’m not being argumentative; just trying to clearly explain how we did things and what happened as a result. Also, no one ever seemed surprised that we asked; it seemed like a pretty common question. Maybe we got lucky, but it was simple and straightforward.
One thing to look out for- I had a student from my HS (not an MT kid) who retook test fall of senior year to up score - and it worked. But AFTER applications were submitted- realized that “old” score was still on the school transcripts. Now that kid has submitted from CB (I think she was only applying to 4 schools - much more of a “normal” application run) but could have cost her scholarship opportunities etc.
Hey let me freely admit that I have absolutely no idea if either of my kids’ scores were on their transcripts. Actually, I had a near panic attack when I thought they might be because it never occurred to me. I thought those tests were the property of the test taker. Didn’t know why the school could decide where the info went so totally news to me if they could. (Go back to the link I posted about this subject before a few threads ago.)
Anyway, what I do know is that there are plenty of stories here, in other threads in CC etc. where somebody cries foul about info not getting from point A to point B and the blame is on the expectation that a school was to have sent something. Sure, if you don’t have a problem, you’d never post about a problem but those problems either actually exist for people that do everything else right, or they exist only for people that did things wrong but need someone to blame. Which is right? No idea.
I’m a control freak and a serial rule follower. You need “official transcripts”? yes sir/mam. I’d rather save $10 making my own coffee vs. buying it at Starbucks for a day or two and not worry about what official means because I just don’t trust the rest of the world, nor myself when it comes to those little details. My husband doesn’t have problem calculating how much gas is actually left in the tank when the light comes on vs. me who freaks out when the light comes on and fills the tank. For the record… had to pick up same dude more than once off of places like the middle of a bridge in rush hour traffic. Pick your poison 
Getting back to another point mentioned - be careful with the “there’s no penalty for guessing” etc. stuff because the SAT is changing for the coming year, and that’s one of the aspects of it which is changing (maybe it already has?). As we were DONE (dances a Stroman combination!) with it all a year ago, I haven’t paid great attention to it, but anyone about to start the test-taking should read up on that, and the other changes and should be careful not to use old editions of study guides.