University: Sending transcripts or test scores before your application?

Factual Questions
1

A long long time ago, I was told by those whom I was expected to respect that I should apply to a college BEFORE sending them transcripts or standardized test scores (e.g. the US’s SAT), because if a school receives a transcript or a test score report but can’t find a current application on file for that person, they will throw the transcript or score report away rather than saving it and matching it up with a future application, and when you actually do get around to applying, you will need to send the transcripts and tests scores AGAIN.

I do understand that some schools might have done this but other schools might now have.

  1. Was this (or anything similar) ever a common, or even uncommon, practice at US schools in the 1990’s, or at anytime or anyplace?

  2. Does this (or anything similar) happen today at any schools?

In case anyone is wondering, I am considering grad school and was thinking about taking the GRE now and worrying about what programs I qualify for later. I am uncertain what Master’s degree I want to seek, but I have an idea of what schools I might be interested in attending, and am wondering if, say, it might be worth it to take the GRE next month and tell them to go ahead and send my score to “The” George Washington University, the University of Maryland College Park, and Marymount University and I’ll worry about deciding which ones to apply to and for which programs I’m going to apply later.

2

Speaking from experience: when I applied to graduate schools back in '01, I took the GREs (general and subject test) a month or two before I actually sent in my applications. I had some scores sent to my top-priority schools at the time, though I applied to seven schools in total and so had to pay extra for the additional scores anyhow. Having my scores preceding the main part of the application in arriving at the schools didn’t seem to present any problem.

If you just want to get an idea of what your GRE score will be (in order to make a decision about which schools you’ll apply to), why not just take one of the practice tests? You’d probably end up taking one of those classes in the course of studying for the “real thing” anyhow.

3

No idea how to answer number one, although the task of managing hundreds of thousands of transcripts at a big state school must have been enormously complicated.

Everything today is done electronically. When you “send” your test result to a school, you’re just allowing them to access it. They push a button and get a list of all the GRE scores that students have directed their way, either on the test day or later.

4

I’m unclear if you meant this to apply to both transcripts and test scores, or rather just the latter, but if you did then I have to correct you and say that tell you that transcripts are definitely still sent via mail. I’m sure as I’ve done quite a few graduate applications just recently.

They sometimes ask you to upload your own scanned copy of a transcript, but this gets checked against an official transcript that you request for your previous institution mail directly to your prospective one. (And the form you use for requesting a transcript to be mailed out asks for the postal address, not some code number like for the GRE.)

5

Funny you should post this… I’m reading grad applications right now.

I run a very competitive program, mainly due to the fact that we have so many applicants. We’re looking to admit roughly 1 out of every 4 applicants.

At my institution, students apply to the graduate school, then the specific program in the college. We never see paper; it always goes to the grad school and is then filtered down to us. It’s fairly efficient and rarely is there a foul-up on their end.

With so many applicants and so few spots, we’re pretty strict about ensuring that all of the materials required for a complete application are in by the deadline. Quite frankly, it isn’t fair, no matter how wonderful the candidate is, if they had more time to take the GRE, get a letter of rec, and so on.

I suppose what I’m saying is that GRE scores are good for 5 years, right? It’s worth a call to the programs you’re interested in to learn how they recommend you submit your application. If it’s like our setup, I believe you can submit materials as early as you wish. It’s electronic, so there really isn’t an issue there. But if it’s being done manually, I can see people wanting you to send everything in at the same time.

I am a little sympathetic to folks who don’t have their recs in on time. I know I occasionally submit a letter after the deadline through no fault of the student. But statement of purpose, resume/CV, test scores, transcripts - that’s the applicant’s responsibility and I tend to be a hardass about that.

Bottom line, get to know someone in the program of interest, preferably out of cycle (not during admissions season). You’ll be more memorable, you’ll have a contact to ask the occasional question of, and it does make a difference to me when I can remember a enthusiastic visitor during the year versus the dozens of people I see in December-January.

And for all the recent and upcoming grads, I strongly recommend ordering 10 or so transcripts from all the schools you attended - sealed, of course - even if you don’t have a need for them. It’s nice to have transcripts on hand and not have to pay extra cash for the express delivery, or wonder what the hell is up with the lazy-ass registrar as you wait with baited breath for the blasted thing to appear on your doorstep. You will easily need 10 transcripts in your lifetime, anyway. Open one and scan it, then you have a “COPY” that might work in a pinch, too.

6

To add another data point. I’ve applied to PhD programs in policy/economics this year and I ‘sent’ my GRE scores to all institutions well before even starting applications. This caused no trouble whatsoever. [Hijack] (The score sending process strikes me as a massive racket btw. ETS has something that seems a lot like a monopoly, and charges 23$ for allowing universities access to the scores - what is essentially a costless transaction for them) [/Hijack]
Quite a few of the programs don’t need any hard copy material to be sent. Everything is online/electronic. A few do need official transcripts, and typically will require you to include an application-specific number with your mail. So if you send a hard copy of anything, do it only after starting your application and carefully looking at the instructions therein.

7

My experience was with law school and the LSAT in 2009. I took the LSAT in June, 2009 and started law school in August, 2010. The applications for the start date in August, 2010 weren’t available until October, 2009.

I don’t remember being asked on the test to send the scores to any particular school, but they do end up being available to the schools after the scores are released (by name and number).

When the scores are released, I remember getting brochures and whatnot on a constant basis. Sometimes you would get a letter with a fee waiver (say, normally it costs $60 to apply to John Smith College of Law, but we want you to apply, so it’s free! Never mind that some schools send this same letter to EVERYONE. :slight_smile: )

When you actually apply to the school, you give them permission to look up your LSAT score by name and number, so that when you apply, they electronically can go to the registry and look at your actual score, along with the additional writing component.

Maybe it is different in other fields, but most schools can do this stuff electronically and don’t really believe your paper copy that you send.