Response to Lena on sending scores junior year

Posted by Dee

Lena commented on the post titled, “Response to Stephanie and stressed applicant on changing UC apps.” Here’s what she said:

“I’m a junior in high school currently. If I choose colleges to send SAT or AP scores to (since the tests usually allow you to submit a few free score reports to colleges), what will happen? Will the colleges just ignore the scores since you are not yet applying or is it helpful?”

Well, good news, I did some research for ya, Lena!

After calling up a bunch of colleges nationwide, I’ve determined that the answer is… it depends.

It seems that most of the big-name private schools will keep your scores if you send them junior year, but public schools will not.

I spoke with Mike from the Stanford University admissions office and he said that it’s perfectly fine to send in your scores junior year before you apply; they “index” all the scores they receive. But, he also added that if you’re planning to take additional standardized tests in your senior year that all your scores will be sent again. In other words, if you’re taking more tests senior year you’re just going to have to send the score report again anyways, so you could wait, but it doesn’t really matter either way.

But, that said, I also spoke to an admissions counselor at the University of California, Berkeley, who said, “No way!” She said that because of the volume of applications and test scores and other mail that the university receives each year, they don’t want applicants to send test scores until after they apply. After all, she said, and I paraphrase here a bit, “Why would we keep test scores around if we don’t even know whether or not you’re applying?!”

So basically Lena, the answer depends on where you want to send your scores junior year; I’d say use up those free score reports for sending to private schools is fine, go for it, but for the big public schools, don’t send those scores until after you apply.