<p>I think if the person was from a country that used nada english, such as china and korea, the adcoms may raise an eyebrow at a low 500.
I think if the person was from a country like australia, england, and this person had a low 500, the adcoms may question the applicant.</p>
<p>If the college says that they do not look at writing scores, (some dont - you gotta check with the schools), they will not look. Well of course they may glance at it but yeah you can decide whether they do look at it or not.</p>
<p>But the thing is, if you want to get admitted to the top colleges, as lakshya said, dont find excuses. Because in an applicant pool, there will ALWAYS be international applicants with near perfect/ perfect SAT scores. ALWAYS.</p>
<p>But at the top schools, I doubt anyone will get automatically rejected because their writing score was low. You see, these schools look at the WHOLE applicant, in respect to their pool. If they like you, you are admitted. If they don't, you are rejected. But speaking of lesser prestigious schools is another story as there are couple of schools that have an automatic acceptance criteria for specified SAT scores.</p>
<p>My advice to you is to stop trying to find the holes in your apps. Instead, try to enhance your best features.</p>