My composite is a 35, which I am thrilled with. However my essay score was an 8, which horrified me because I want to be a writer! Admittedly it was not the best essay; I was tired, don’t like to write under time constraints, and I thought the prompt was weird.
Do you think colleges (ivies or near ivies) will focus on my low writing score especially given my intended major? I have a solid application otherwise. I know many colleges don’t even require the writing part of the ACT, but if my score is there won’t they look at it and wonder?
Each school will have different policies about how they treat ACT writing scores. Most describe their policy in the standardized testing section of their admission web site.
If a number of your short-list schools require an ACT writing score, you may want to consider retaking the ACT and put in a lot of prep time on improving your writing score. Though if you’re a senior, you may not have enough time to do that.
Most schools I am looking at simply say that they do not require the ACT writing portion (most schools do not require it anymore) but they still do not say how they use it in admissions if you do submit the writing score. The lack of transparency is so frustrating!
I am a senior so I really don’t have the time or inclination to take this test again. That said, it’s really stressing me out because I’ve worked so hard and feel like this one stupid essay will ruin my application!
Don’t worry about it ruining your applications. Schools know it is a very unreliable number and not very helpful. One of mine got an extremely high score on it the first time and and a very average one the second time. The latter composite score was a fair bit higher, and they decided not to even submit the one with the high writing score. They had success in the application process. There might be the odd exception, but it won’t be any sort of deal breaker at a school that does not require it or puts little emphasis on it, which I think is most often the case. Good luck!
There are other ways to demonstrate your writing ability in your application. The writing score is generally not weighted very heavily. People know that writing to an arbitrary prompt and being graded according to a rubric under time pressure is not a reliable indication of writing skill.