How to Send SAT Scores to Colleges: Step-by-Step Guide

Many admissions officers look at your SAT score report to determine your college readiness. Similarly, many scholarships review this information and award money to incoming students with a top SAT score. Colleges’ and scholarships’ application deadlines mean you must send your SAT score report in time.

Learning how to send SAT scores to colleges and scholarship programs takes only a few minutes. Read on to learn how much it costs to send SAT scores and the three ways you can send your SAT score report.

Your SAT score report shows you your total score out of 1600, as well as how this scores breaks down into several categories.

College admissions officers and scholarship committees will see your overall SAT score first. This score will be the largest, most prominent number on your report due to its importance.

Section scores and test scores break down your Math and Evidence-Based Reading and Writing performance and show how you rank nationally. You’ll receive a green checkmark if you meet the College Board’s college readiness benchmarks.

Finally, subscores and cross-test scores reveal your strengths and areas of improvement in certain subjects and for certain question types. These scores use a scale of 1-15 and 10-40, respectively.

Before asking when you should send SAT scores, consider whether you should send them at all. Currently, there are over 1,800 test-optional schools. Research your prospective schools’ admission statistics to determine whether your SAT scores could improve your application.

If you take the SAT your junior year of high school and plan to retake the test, avoid sending your SAT score report to colleges your junior year. Instead, use the time after the exam to review your scores, create an improvement plan, and try to do better on a retake.

Give yourself enough time to send SAT scores the fall of your senior year. In most cases, reporting SAT scores takes less than two weeks.

The College Board lets you send SAT scores in three ways. You do so when registering for the SAT or after receiving your scores. If you qualify, you may use a fee waiver to send SAT scores for free.

You should consider sending scores for free when you register for the SAT if you prepared well for the test and don’t plan to retake it or if you face a quickly approaching application deadline. The College Board lets you send your scores to up to four colleges for free.

Note that the College Board also gives you nine days after the test to select the schools you’d like to send your scores to. You can choose schools on your College Board account by typing in their name or four-digit score reporting code.

You can also wait until you receive your scores to send your SAT score report to schools if you feel uncertain about your performance.

The College Board charges $12 for each SAT score report you send after the nine-day post-test window has passed. You can also pay $31 per report for a rush order if you need your scores to arrive as quickly as possible.

Talk with your high school counselor if you think you qualify for an SAT fee waiver. A waiver lets you take the SAT twice for free and puts no limit on the number of scores you may send for free.

You qualify for a fee waiver by meeting one of six eligibility criteria, such as participation in the National School Lunch Program or your family receiving public assistance.

The College Board sends your scores to schools within 10 days of you receiving them. Note that the amount of time it takes to send your scores depends on the method you choose. You should send SAT scores when you register for the SAT if you need colleges or scholarships to receive them as soon as possible.

Rush reports take 1-4 business days, making them ideal for college applicants on a tight deadline. You can order rush reports through your College Board account.