Heads Up: Know Your 4 Free GRE Recipients before you leave test center

[kimchijajonshim]

ETS will submit 4 score reports for you for "free" as part of your test fee, however you must declare the 4 recipients at the test center. If you want to send any after the test (even if you did not use any of the 4), they will charge you $27 USD a recipient. They have a section to this on their website, but they do not mention it in the confirmation email nor in the click-through materials registering on the website (my customer service rep did not mention it to me when I registered by phone). I don't recall having seen anything about additional cost on-screen at the test center, but honestly I was tired and might have breezed through it.

 

In general, I get the sense it's a token attempt to say they offer "free" score reporting while actually milking grad applications as much as they can.

 

Make sure you know those 4 schools you want to submit to beforehand, otherwise you will either need to pay $108 USD or call them later to complain. I did the latter and was only able to get them to make a "one-time exception" to give me 2 of them. I'm sure I could have gotten all four if I'd complained long enough, but: A.) I'd already wasted half an hour on it, B.) I only knew one program I planned to apply to for sure on the day of my test, so as far as I'm concerned I came out one freebie ahead, and C.) I'm not sure I'll apply to 4 schools.

 

 

[iphi]

This is good advice, but the first time I took it they wanted me to identify the schools I was sending to before I saw my scores. I didn't want to take the risk that I bombed it, so I let all that money go to waste (still worth it, IMO). But the second time I took it they showed me my scores (save AW, of course) first! So know your schools, but also know you may be taking a risk if you don't get to see your scores first.

[VulpesZerda]

This whole process is just confusing. So when I get my scores, what if they're on the fence between what I deem acceptable and unacceptable to send? How much time do we have to decide? I don't want to waste $108 and I don't want to send scrappy scores just to save $108.

[Persis]

Do you only need to give the names of the schools or do you actually need to have the GRE code from each school?

[Gvh]

This is good advice, but the first time I took it they wanted me to identify the schools I was sending to before I saw my scores. I didn't want to take the risk that I bombed it, so I let all that money go to waste (still worth it, IMO). But the second time I took it they showed me my scores (save AW, of course) first! So know your schools, but also know you may be taking a risk if you don't get to see your scores first.

 

Are you serious?! What sneaky little shits.  Was both times you took the test after the 2011 revision? When I took it back in 2010, I remembering seeing my scores before submitting them to the schools. 

[Catria]

This supposes that you know beforehand which four schools you will apply without fail. Not everyone will know in advance that these four schools will fall in their acceptable range; in fact some people can cross a school off a list because of GRE scores.

[kimchijajonshim]

This whole process is just confusing. So when I get my scores, what if they're on the fence between what I deem acceptable and unacceptable to send? How much time do we have to decide? I don't want to waste $108 and I don't want to send scrappy scores just to save $108.

 

Can't speak to everyone's experience (I took computer test), but I saw my scores (other than AWA) before having the option to send them to anyone.

 

Do you only need to give the names of the schools or do you actually need to have the GRE code from each school?

 

You need to know the institution code and the department. Institution code is enough enough to find depending on the school, department code could be a pain in the ass depending on the school. I couldn't find the latter, which is why I opted to wait and nearly had to pay them. Sucks because they don't give you advance notice, expect you to know your programs, and don't give you any means by which to find out information you don't know (since I don't have my phone on me or anything). They nearly denied my claim for a freebie because I didn't go and tell the Prometric proctor that I couldn't find my school. They expect this after taking a 4 hour test you're relieved to have just finished. Are you serious? As I said, total cash grab while given a token "service" to students.

 

This supposes that you know beforehand which four schools you will apply without fail. Not everyone will know in advance that these four schools will fall in their acceptable range; in fact some people can cross a school off a list because of GRE scores.

Yep. You will know your Quant and Verbal scores before you send (at least I did), but then you need some sort of rubric about your top 4 schools for your range of scores. I had done zero research on programs other than one in particular I was looking at, which is a bit annoying because I otherwise would have done some more research. It's just absurd they expect you to track this stuff when you should just be focused on taking the test.

[VulpesZerda]

I know you see the scores, but for how long can you decide whether or not to send them? 5 minutes?

[kimchijajonshim]

I know you see the scores, but for how long can you decide whether or not to send them? 5 minutes?

The decision's right after you see your scores. Don't know how long you have. I suppose until the proctors kick you out because someone else needs to use the computer.