<p>I'm wondering if I need to change my old school mindset of seeing a 2050 score and thinking, "Well I have no idea what that means. This person might be 1290 without the writing section."</p>
<p>No- most are still not really putting much weight on the writing score.</p>
<p>^ What makes you say that? A few don’t consider the section, but where did you find that most don’t give it equal weight?</p>
<p>In addition, there has always been a WORLD of difference between what colleges SAY and what they DO, especially if one listens to a traveling junior adcom.</p>
<p>A few years ago, when MIT was at the center of this debat, it became obvious that the adcoms who shared information with members of CC were not aware of the “policy” statements issued by Les Perelman. Of course, at that time, MIT’s admissions was led by a person who was extremely gifted in the art of speaking from all sides of her mouth. Bu that is another story. </p>
<p>Fwiw, Here’s a (dated) article on the subject:</p>
<p>[Many</a> colleges ignore SAT writing test, frustrating high school students. - The Boston Globe](<a href=“http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/09/20/many_colleges_ignore_sat_writing_test/]Many”>http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/09/20/many_colleges_ignore_sat_writing_test/)</p>
<p>Are you talking about the SAT Reasoning Test essay, or the Writing multiple choice section?</p>
<p>At the most competitive end of the market, I think the evidence is mixed as to both. One clue is whether the school records stats on the two-part SAT CR+M or the three-part CR+M+W, e.g., on its web pages advising potential applicants and GCs as to the kinds of test scores the school looking for. Some use CR+M, some use CR+M+W. I don’t think they’d report the latter unless they considered it.</p>
<p>As for the SAT essay, it’s always seemed absurd to me that a 20-minute essay can tell you much about a person’s writing ability, and I’ve just assumed the top schools would ignore or downplay it. And they almost never report average essay scores on their web pages, which seems like confirmation. On the other hand, they all seem to want ACT-takers to take the ACT with Writing, which I believe is part multiple choice and part essay. So that seems to suggest they DO care about the writing portions of these tests.</p>
<p>Bottom line: I dunno, but I suspect it varies by school.</p>
<p>^ The essay is part of the SAT Writing section.</p>