Wrong high school on SAT Admission Ticket - still able to take the test?

I accidentally said I went to a high school with the same name as mine a few cities over. Does this mean I can't take the test? Will my scores still be valid?

If you're taking the SAT at your high school, you'll need to update your SAT Admission Ticket. As long as it's before the date listed on page 2 of your Admissions Ticket (usually about 14 days before the test date), you'll be able to do this.

You can make changes to your high school associated with your account by going online to the "My Organizer" section of CollegeBoard.org and changing the test center listed there (making sure that it's the right high school!). After you've made and saved these changes, you'll need to click on "Print/Update Admission Ticket" to finalize the changes and print out a new SAT Admission Ticket. If you registered by mail, you can still use the "My Organizer" section of the College Board site - you'll just need to have your registration number to make changes to your ticket online.

You can also always take the SAT at a testing center that's not your high school without any ramifications - in fact, I myself did this, because my high school didn't offer the March testing date when I took the SAT. If you realize you put down a different testing center than you'd intended on your registration and it's less than 14 days before the test, you can just go to that other testing center and take the test. If it's not possible for you to get to that testing center, though, you're probably out of luck (although you can always try contacting College Board's Customer Service to see if you can make a last-minute change or get on a waitlist).

What if you're taking the SAT at a neighboring school and entered the testing center information correctly, but just put down the wrong thing for "High School Attended" during the registration process, and it's already after the "Registration Changes and Corrections" date?

As far as I can tell, saying you go to a high school with the same name as yours (but a few towns over) will not affect your ability to take the test. The College Board ID requirements (for U.S. students in U.S. testing centers - there are different policies for certain other countries) are that your form of ID: - contains your full, legal name (with all names in the correct order) - is government-issued or school-issued and unexpired (if it's a school ID without a specific expiration date, it's considered expired by December 31st of the year it is valid for) - has a recognizable photo that matches you on admission day and your admission ticket photo

...and that's it. There's nothing about having the name of your high school on your ID, or being able to corroborate which high school you attend when you get to the testing center.

It's better to have the correct high school on your admissions ticket/SAT registration so that it's automatically sent to your high school, and so that it's clear when your scores are sent to colleges that you're the one who took the test. From the information I've been able to find, however, it seems that there's no reason you wouldn't be able to contact College Board's Customer Service and change the high school associated with your account AFTER the fact.

So if it's <14 days before your SAT and you realized you put down the wrong high school for "Currently Attending...", don't worry about it. It's annoying to have to call Customer Service to sort it out after the fact, but it's not the end of the world. And if it's ?14 days, all you have to do is update your SAT Admission Ticket to reflect the correct information.

Source: Collegeboard.org

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