Seniors, as you are completing your college applications you
will notice that colleges are asking for SAT and ACT test scores. One of the most common questions we get is,
“Should I report all of my scores?” The
simple answer is, “YES!” Colleges are
going to take your highest score. It
doesn’t hurt you to show that you took a test again to improve your score. If anything this shows that you care about
your scores and want to put your best foot forward. Colleges like to see growth, so don’t be
afraid to show the colleges an improvement in scores.
Although some of you have your test scores on your
transcript, this will not be sufficient for colleges. Most require that you send scores directly
from The College Board or ACT. The
colleges will tell you their deadlines through email. It is really important that you are checking
your email and spam folders regularly so that you don’t miss any communication
from your college. For example, CSUN
requires that you send your test scores by the end of January. If you miss this deadline they will no longer
consider your application. No exceptions. It is a very strict deadline that you can’t
miss. Every year we have students that wait until
the last minute and try to send their scores for next day or same day delivery,
this DOES NOT WORK. The College Board
will charge you an extra $31 for a rush delivery that goes out in 2 days, but
the college still requires up to a week to record your scores. You
need to give yourself at least two
weeks to make sure everything gets sent properly.
It is important that you make sending your test scores a top
priority. If you are applying to one or
more CSU schools you can send your scores directly to CSU mentor and it will go
to every CSU school. The CSU mentor code
for SAT is 3594. If you have ACT scores
to send, you need to send your scores directly to one CSU and then you can use
CSU mentor for the rest of the schools.
THIS
link will give you more information.
If you plan to apply to UC schools, you only need to send
your scores to one school. Once the
scores are received they will be shared with the other UC schools. For colleges other than a UC or CSU, you will
need to send the scores directly to each school. This link takes you to the information on how
to do this for SAT and ACT.
For those of you planning to participate in NCAA sports in
college, you also need to send your test scores to NCAA. The NCAA code is 9999. For instructions, please follow THIS
link.
If you have any questions about this, or your college
applications in general, please don’t forget that your counselors are in the
library during 6th and 7th period from November 16th
to November 25th to help.
Please stop by!!
