Knowing how to send SSAT scores to schools is the last logistical hurdle between your child's test day and a complete boarding-school application — and EMA's portal works very differently from the SAT or ACT. Online score reports are free and unlimited, you can send to as many EMA member schools as you want, and most counselors recommend waiting until after release Wednesday to review the score before designating recipients. This guide walks through the exact portal steps, the four-digit code system, the score-advisor distinction, and the hard cutoffs that catch families off guard.
The single most useful thing to understand about how to send SSAT scores to schools is that online score reports through the parent/guardian portal are free, with no per-school fee. EMA does not cap the number of recipients per test, nor does it charge an extra delivery fee the way College Board does for late SAT score sends. You can send to one school or twenty, and the cost is the same — zero.
Many families assume the SSAT works like the SAT, where you get a few free reports inside a tight window and then pay per-school after. It does not. The trade-off EMA makes is delivery format: every report is digital, sent through EMA's online infrastructure to the receiving school's account. There is no mail or expedited paper option for school score reports.
Because there's no per-school fee, the only real strategic decision is when to send. Most placement counselors recommend waiting until after release Wednesday so you can see the score before deciding. The trade-off: schools designated before testing receive scores at the same moment your family does, while schools added after release see them within minutes of designation. Either path costs nothing.
The one hard restriction: only EMA member schools and educational consultants can receive official SSAT score reports. The vast majority of independent boarding and day schools that use the SSAT are members, but it's worth confirming each target school is in the EMA directory before you build out an application list. EMA maintains a public school search at search.ssat.org where you can verify membership and look up the school's four-digit recipient code.
If a school you're considering is not on the list, the school cannot receive an official score report through EMA. In that case, talk to the admissions office directly — some schools will accept a printed PDF score report that the family downloads from their account, but that is the school's call, not EMA's.
The first stumbling block for many families is that score-sending controls are only visible from the parent/guardian account — not the student account. If you're logged in as the test-taker and don't see a "Send Scores" option, that's why. Log out, then sign back in using the parent account credentials you used at registration.
From the SSAT Scores page, click the downward caret next to the test entry you want to send. That expands a row containing the recipient management area. Inside that row, the field labeled Search and Add Score Recipients accepts either the school's name or its unique four-digit code. The four-digit code path is the more reliable option when several schools share a name (think "St. Paul's School" — there are several across multiple states).
The same control is used to add an SSAT score recipient after test results have already been released. The portal does not gate adding recipients — only removing them — once the score is live.
When the school appears in the dropdown, double-check the city and state before clicking Add. EMA does not show a confirmation dialog, so the click is the commit. Once added, the school appears in the recipients list for that test, and EMA delivers the report digitally on the score's release day (or immediately, if the score has already been released). Only the selected test's scores are sent — even if your student has tested multiple times, recipients on one test entry never automatically apply to another.
Worked Example
Setup: Maya tested on a Saturday SSAT at Home, scores released the following Wednesday, and she wants to send them to two boarding schools — one in Massachusetts and one in California with a similar name.
SSAT score release rules vary by test mode, and the rule you live by determines when you can pull the trigger on score sending. The most important number for any application list is the release Wednesday — that's when designated schools see your child's score, when you see it, and when the window to remove recipients closes for good.
| Test Mode | Standard Release Day | December/Holiday Exception | Plan-Ahead Tip |
|---|---|---|---|
| SSAT at Home | Wednesday after the test date | Tests on Dec 20–21 release Dec 23 | Test at least 2 Wednesdays before your earliest deadline |
| Prometric Test Center | Wednesday after the Sunday ending the scoring period | Tests Dec 22 to Jan 4 release Jan 7 | Pick a test slot in the first half of the week to shorten the wait |
| Paper SSAT | Within ~2 weeks of the test date | Holiday-period delays possible | Build in a 14-day buffer before any Jan or Feb deadline |
For digital tests, EMA standardizes around Wednesday. SSAT at Home tests release on the Wednesday after the test date, so a Saturday at-home test reliably surfaces a score four days later. For Prometric Test Center sittings, EMA bundles a full Monday-through-Sunday window into one scoring period, then releases that period's scores on the next Wednesday. The practical effect: a Tuesday Prometric test releases the same Wednesday as a Sunday Prometric test from the same week.
Paper-administered SSATs take longer because the answer sheets have to be physically returned to EMA, scanned, and scored. Plan on roughly two weeks from test day to released score. Holiday windows (Thanksgiving, Christmas/New Year) can push this further, so the rule of thumb for parents is to build in a 14-day buffer before any January or February deadline if the student is taking a paper test.
December has two specific exception dates that catch families off guard: SSAT at Home tests on December 20 and 21 release on December 23 (compressed because of the holiday week), and Prometric tests taken between December 22 and January 4 don't release until January 7. If your earliest deadline is in early January, those windows can be tight.
One additional gating step: parents must complete the Testing Experience Statement before EMA will release the score to anyone — including the family. This is a short prompt inside the parent account asking about the child's testing experience. Skipping it means your child's score sits unreleased even though release Wednesday has come and gone.
Pick the test mode your child is using to see when scores show up in the parent portal.
Enter the days between your earliest application deadline and your test date. The tool flags whether you have enough buffer for at-home, Prometric, or paper modes.
The SSAT portal has two different "who gets your scores" buckets, and confusing the two is the most common parent mistake. Both are added the same way — name or four-digit code — but they do different things, and only one of them allows multiple entries.
| Feature | Score Recipient | Score Advisor |
|---|---|---|
| Receives scores directly | Yes | Yes (and can forward to others on your behalf) |
| How many allowed per test | Unlimited | One |
| Removable before release? | Yes (free) | Yes (free) |
| Removable after release? | No | Yes (can be changed any time) |
| Typical use case | Boarding schools you are applying to | An admissions consultant who manages submissions |
A score recipient is the straightforward case: you add a school as a recipient, EMA delivers your child's score directly to the school's admissions account on release day. Add as many recipients as your application list requires — there is no cap, and there is no fee.
A score advisor is a single, designated school or consultant authorized to forward your scores to other recipients on your behalf. The classic use case is an independent admissions consultant who is managing your child's full application portfolio: you grant them advisor status so they can push the score to the day-school list they're coordinating.
The single most important constraint: each test allows only one score advisor. Score recipients are unlimited; advisors are not. If you change consultants midway through the application season, you'll remove the old advisor (which you can do at any time, even after release) and add the new one.
Both roles share one eligibility requirement: the school or consultant must be an EMA member to be designated. Most established placement consultants are members; if you're working with someone newer to the field, confirm they're in EMA's directory before you commit them as your score advisor.
Once scores are released, designated recipients cannot be canceled or removed. That cutoff is binary — Tuesday afternoon, you can still drop a school; Wednesday morning, you cannot. The window also closes for paper tests when EMA finishes scoring (typically two weeks after the test). This is the single rule most likely to cause parent regret on the SSAT.
| Action | Allowed Before Release? | Allowed After Release? |
|---|---|---|
| Add a new score recipient | Yes | Yes (recipient gets score immediately) |
| Remove a score recipient | Yes | No |
| Change a score advisor | Yes | Yes |
| Cancel the test score itself | Only by 5 PM ET Tuesday after the test | No |
| Send scores from a previous test attempt | Yes (separate test entry) | Yes (separate test entry) |
From the parent account, open SSAT Scores, expand the relevant test, and find the recipient list inside the same row. Each recipient has a remove icon next to it. Click, confirm — no fee, no waiting period, the recipient is gone from that test entry. Score advisors are removed the same way and can be changed at any point, including after release.
Worked Example
Setup: Devin's family adds three recipients during registration. After a campus visit, they decide to drop one of the three before scores release the following Wednesday.
Cancelling the whole score (not just removing a recipient) is a different process with an even tighter deadline: you must cancel by 5:00 PM ET on the Tuesday after the test, and you cannot wait until you've seen the score before deciding. EMA's cancellation rule is sight-unseen by design, so cancellations on the SSAT are rare. Most families who are nervous about a result instead let it score, view it privately, and then choose not to send it to any recipients.
Sending scores is free, but EMA offers four paid add-ons. None of them are required to send scores to schools, but a couple are useful around the edges of the process. Here's what each one actually does.
| Service | Cost | What It Does | Worth It For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Online score reporting (school sends) | Free / unlimited | Sends digital report to any EMA member school or consultant | Every family — this is the default |
| Score Alert | $19 | Text or email notification the moment scores release | Parents racing tight application deadlines |
| Writing Sample | $26 | Copy of the student's essay (Middle and Upper Levels) | Families who want to see how their student wrote under pressure |
| Rescore Grade | $59 | Re-scoring if the wrong grade level was selected | Registration mistake; processing takes up to 2 weeks |
| Hand Scoring | $100 | Manual review of a paper-test answer sheet | Concern about a specific paper-test result; takes up to 1 month |
At $19, Score Alert is the only add-on that materially affects the score-sending workflow. It pushes a text or email the moment your child's score releases, which matters because release Wednesdays often happen mid-workday. Parents racing tight January or February deadlines benefit most. Score Alert does not change the release date itself — it just delivers the notification faster than checking the portal manually.
The remaining three are situational. The Writing Sample copy ($26) lets you read your child's actual essay for Middle and Upper Level tests — useful for English teachers helping with revision strategy, less useful for school sending since recipient schools see the writing sample directly. Rescore Grade ($59) only applies if you accidentally registered the student at the wrong grade level. Hand Scoring ($100) is the heaviest service: a manual review of a paper-test answer sheet, taking up to a month, generally only worth it if you suspect a scanning error on a borderline result.
The most important thing to budget around: there is no per-school fee for sending. Mail or expedited paper delivery are not offered for school score reports. Anyone telling you that you need to pay $30 or $35 per "additional report" is confusing the SSAT with another exam. Every legitimate score-sending action through the EMA portal is free.
No. Online SSAT score reports through the parent/guardian portal are free and unlimited. You can send scores to as many EMA member schools or educational consultants as you want at no extra cost. EMA does not charge a mail or expedited delivery fee for school score reports — sending is digital only. The only optional paid services are extras like Score Alert ($19), Writing Sample copies ($26), or Hand Scoring ($100), none of which are required to send your scores.
No, nothing is automatic. According to EMA, every recipient — including the student's current school — must be manually designated. If you do not list any recipients, only your family will see the scores. Schools where your student tested, or schools that received scores from a previous test, will not be re-sent unless you add them again for each new test attempt.