I got what I wanted on the SAT the first time, 1590, but I got a 5/4/7 on the Essay, which is kinda low. My question is that if I submit my SAT score with Essay to a college that does not require the Essay, will my essay score be counted against me? Also, is this Essay score particularly bad or am I ok?
IMO, If a school doesn’t require or request the essay, it’s because they don’t consider it a valuable data point. So if you send it, they will ignore it.
From the data I’ve seen, those scores are right around the average. I suspect students who take the essay skew higher on Math/EBRW but have no data to support this. They aren’t “bad” but probably not aligned with your core test scores.
Even for schools that require the essay, I don’t think they’re heavily weighted in the decision process. Are you applying to schools that require it? Barring some situation I’m not thinking of, don’t take the test again and put it behind you.