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Do Colleges Look at PSAT Scores?

Written by Sally Rubenstone | Oct. 13, 2008

Question: Do colleges look at your PSAT scores, because that is what my mom keeps telling me?

Your mother may be right most of the time ... but probably not this time. :-)

College admission officials typically do NOT see PSAT scores. If your high school routinely enters these scores on transcripts, then the admission folks may possibly spot your scores there. However, they are not formally used as part of the admission process.

The main role of PSAT scores is to:

-Give you a sense of where your SAT's may ultimately land, with a bit of time to bolster weak areas, as needed

-Determine whether you will be in the running for the National Merit Scholarship competition, or for a couple other scholarships, too. (This does not play a huge role in elite-college admissions, as many students and parents think that it does).

But PSAT's will not determine your admissions fate. So you can tell your mom that colleges typically don't pay much--or ANY--attention to your PSAT results.

Sally Rubenstone

Sally Rubenstone knows the competitive and often convoluted college admission process inside out: From the first time the topic of college comes up at the dinner table until the last duffel bag is unloaded on a dorm room floor. She is the co-author of Panicked Parents' Guide to College Admissions; The Transfer Student's Guide to Changing Colleges and The International Student's Guide to Going to College in America. Sally has appeared on NBC's Today program and has been quoted in countless publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Weekend, USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek, People and Seventeen. Sally has viewed the admissions world from many angles: As a Smith College admission counselor for 15 years, an independent college counselor serving students from a wide range of backgrounds and the author of College Confidential's "Ask the Dean" column. She also taught language arts, social studies, study skills and test preparation in 10 schools, including American international schools in London, Paris, Geneva, Athens and Tel Aviv. As senior advisor to College Confidential since 2002, Sally has helped hundreds of students and parents navigate the college admissions maze. In 2008, she co-founded College Karma, a private college consulting firm, with her College Confidential colleague Dave Berry, and she continues to serve as a College Confidential advisor. Sally and her husband, Chris Petrides, became first-time parents in 1997 at the ripe-old age of 45. So Sally was nearly an official senior citizen when her son Jack began the college selection process, and when she was finally able to practice what she had preached for more than three decades.