Wondering how to send your SAT scores to colleges? It’s as simple as a few clicks of a keyboard. We’ll take you through the process and provide guidance on the best strategy for reporting your SAT scores to colleges.
There are two ways to send your SAT scores to colleges: 1. for free or 2. for a fee:
1. Send Four SAT Score Reports for Free
You can send four score reports to colleges for free every time you register for the SAT. You can choose which schools to send your score report to when you register or up to nine days after you take the test. These scores are sent before you see them.
Pros of Sending Your Score Report for Free
It’s free!
This is a great option if the college you’re interested in requires you to send all of your SAT scores. Because they will see all of your scores anyway, there’s no need to wait and see what you scored.
Cons of Sending Your Score Report for Free
The biggest drawback to the free score reports: your scores are sent to colleges before you see them.
So whether you ace the test or bomb it, the four colleges you choose will see your score. This may turn out ok if you’re applying to schools that super score multiple test results. Always check with your school’s policy so you can present yourself well.
2. Send Your Score Report After You Receive Your Scores
If you choose not to send your SAT score report to colleges for free, it costs $12 per score report to send your scores to colleges. If it is financially possible, we highly recommend spending $12 per score report so you can see your scores before you send them.
To Order Additional SAT Score Reports:
Online
Sign in to your College Board account and click “My SAT” in your profile navigation menu.
Then click “Send your scores to colleges and scholarship programs:”
You’ll see a pop-up asking if you want to send Additional Score Reports. Yes, you do!
Now you choose the colleges to send your scores to. Type in the name of the school or the 4 digit code. Once they pop up in the dropdown menu, click to add to your list.
Once you’ve added all the schools, click continue. You will see an option below each school to “Choose Scores.” The College Board’s SAT Score Choice policy allows you to choose what scores go to colleges. If you decide not to use Score Choice, all your scores will be sent to the colleges you choose.
Pick which scores you’d like to send and then continue for each school on your list.
Follow the yellow “Continue” buttons until you have paid for and sent your scores. You will receive a confirmation email from the College Board when you are finished.
By Mail
Complete and mail the Additional Score Report Order Form
By Phone
Call Customer Service at 866-756-7346 (toll free) or 212-713-7789 (international)
You will need to send a score report to each college you are considering. For example, if you are applying to the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, and the University of Georgia, it will cost you $36 total ($12×3) to send your score report to these schools.
Pros of Ordering Additional Score Reports
We recommend waiting to send your SAT scores to colleges until after you’ve seen them. There’s no way to predict how you’ll really perform on the test. Additionally, if you take the test multiple times, you should wait to send your results until you’ve reached your highest score!
Waiting to send your scores to colleges until after you’ve seen them ensures that the schools you’re dreaming about get the best picture of your abilities on the SAT test. Furthermore, you can take advantage of Score Choice (more on that below), which allows you even more control over what scores the college sees.
Once you have your scores in hand, try to send them as promptly as possible. It will be on you to get those scores to colleges, so be sure to send your scores well before the application deadline. Another reason for sending your scores early is to show demonstrated interest to a school that you are highly interested in. This can put you on their radar early which for certain schools can be important.
Cons of Ordering Additional Score Reports
At $12 a report, the cost of sending your scores adds up quickly.
To avoid unnecessary costs, before sending your scores to every college on your list take a look at the average SAT scores for the school. If your score is in the 75th percentile (meaning you scored higher than 75% of applicants), then you and your school are a perfect match and you should send that score in!
If you find that your score is much lower than the average score for that school, you may want to wait to send your score until it better aligns with the school. You can read more about picking the best college for you in our post about determining how many colleges to apply to.
Can I Use a Fee Waiver to Pay for Score Reports?
Yes! If you qualify for a fee waiver to take the SAT test, then you can send as many additional score reports as you want for free.
About the SAT Score Choice Policy
With the College Board’s SAT Score Choice policy, you choose what scores go to colleges. If you decide not to use Score Choice, all your scores will be sent to the colleges you choose.
Why this is helpful to you: Depending on how many times you’ve taken the SAT or when you choose to send your scores, your SAT score report will contain multiple SAT test scores.
For example, if you took the SAT in December, March, and May but did not send any colleges your scores, then when you send a college your score report in June, it will contain your December, March, and May scores. But perhaps you bombed the March test…through Score Choice, you can choose to only send the December and May test scores.
You can only send these scores by test; you cannot send individual section scores to create a “superscore.” However, some schools superscore for you when you send in multiple scores. It is always best to review each school’s SAT score policy before sending so you can present yourself most favorably according to their policy.
How Long Does it Take to Send SAT Scores?
It can take 2-8 weeks for colleges to receive and process your SAT score report. These numbers can increase as you get closer to specific deadlines. As more and more students sign up to send scores close to application deadlines it may take longer to send your scores. So make sure you request to have your scores sent in plenty of time.
If you choose to send your scores for free:
You get your score back 2-6 weeks after taking the SAT.
Your four SAT score reports are automatically sent to colleges within 10 days after your scores are released to you.
Once colleges receive your scores, it takes some time to process them. Most schools receive SAT scores electronically and choose how often to download new score reports, anywhere from once per day to once per week.
Total time: 4-8 weeks
If you send your score report later:
Once you’ve chosen schools to receive your score reports and paid the fee, the College Board begins processing your order. It takes “a few days” to process your order and send your scores to colleges, so we’d allow a week for this process.
After the College Board sends your scores, it may take the college up to a week to download and file your score.
Total time: 2 weeks
If you are in a time crunch, you can pay $31 for a rush score report, guaranteeing your score will be sent to the college in 1-2 business days. However, this does not guarantee when the college will download and file your score. You should allow at least 3 weeks between ordering your scores and the college’s application deadline, just to be safe.
To Wrap it Up: Play it Safe
To wrap it all up, we recommend not sending your scores for free to four colleges (unless the school requires you to send all your scores) and instead sending your SAT results (for $12 each) to schools after you’ve seen them and have decided they’re the scores you want to send. This way, you’re completely in control of the image you present to the school.
Still have some studying to do? Try our online SAT study course. It’s self-paced and covers every section of the test through focused practice questions and animated explanation videos. Enroll at www.olive-book.com.