Hi all,
I received a 35 composite on my February ACT.
(English (36), Math (32), Reading (36), and Science (35).
However, on the essay/writing portion I got a 7. Do colleges place a large amount of importance on the essay score?
With a 35 you have nothing to worry about in terms of acceptance…
I posted on a different page a similar question. My son just got his scores back on got a 36C (36E, 34M, 36R, 36S) and he only got an 8 on the essay. His last test in Dec was a 33C and a 10 on the essay.
I was wondering the same thing about colleges and will they look at the 8 essay score.
Your essay score is fine. Don’t retake.
My son had a 35 and a poor essay score and it has not seemed to effect him one bit for admissions. They care more about the essay in their own applications or your Common App essay.
The answer is it depends on the college. The writing section is designed to see how you perform writing under pressure and the skills you learned to incorporate. The application and common app essays will be reviewed and revised by numerous people including teachers before being sent. The writing section on the ACT is all you with no help.
The ACT essay is assessed according to a rubric and graders are moving very, very fast. I believe that colleges and universities know this. There was a discussion about this last year and it seemed like many takers who got a high composite typically scored an 8 on the essay. Personally, I thought that the way the ACT essay was structured was weird. The SAT essay structure, IMO, did a better job of testing writing skills that one might actually need to demonstrate in college.
In any event, there are other ways to show that you can write, like scoring high on a humanities AP test that requires analytical essays.
send your ACT score to the schools with
AP English Language and Composition (5) and AP English Literature and Composition (5)
to demonstrate how good you are.
I had replied above that my son got a 36 Composite and only a 8 in writing…the first time he took it he scored a 33 Composite and a 10 in writing. He will be taking AP Lit as a senior so will not have AP test score to send. He is interested in Communications/Journalism major so I am wondering if schools will pay attention to the 8 score and if it will affect his chances at some schools. He is an excellent writer (very surprised he only got an 8) and one of his teacher recs will be from his Journalism teacher who he will have for 3 years in a row.
Do you think schools will put a lot of weight in the 8 score?
For one thing, schools do not have to report the writing score to US News. But they do incorporate the overall ACT score in their report to US News.
Do not retake the act if you have a 36. Most schools do NOT look at the writing at all. I think they would look down upon spending the time to take the test again just for the writing, rather than spending time on something more worthwhile. In addition, there may be some schools that will require all of the testing history of the ACT, so your child will send in the 36,8 and 33, 10. Move on 
Agree that there is no reason to retake an ACT with a score of 35 regardless of one’s writing score.
Nope! I just got into UMich with a 34 composite and a 7 on writing. They will evaluate your writing ability based on your application essays, not based on the product of an hour’s work after a four hour test. You’re fine. Good luck!
@Bella2018 that’s good news - my son has a 35 composite and a 7 on the essay too, and UMich is one of his top choices. Most other schools he is looking at don’t require the essay, but UMich is the one is he is really worried about.
The average writing score of a student admitted to UMich is 7. You’ve got nothing to worry about!
If you have a 35 composite on the ACT, you have nothing to worry about. The essay score doesn’t matter as much and besides, you can just do great on your college essay.