<p>The top three schools that I am applying to say that they will only consider an applicant's highest score on each section of the SAT. When I took the SAT for the second time, I improved about 100 points on the CR and Math sections, but my writing score decreased by 120 points. Will this have an affect on my chances? My top 3 schools are Columbia, UPenn, and Cornell (in no particular order).</p>
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The top three schools that I am applying to say that they will only consider an applicant's highest score on each section of the SAT.
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<p>Well you pretty much answered your own question there, didn't you.</p>
<p>so you netted an 80 point increase overall. what was your final score? they're going to look at the final score as well as changes in your score...</p>
<p>to clear things up, since I'm sure some applicants still don't get this, most top colleges super score - best from each section whenever you took the SAT, super-scoring is done rigidly unless you've taken the SAT like 4 times, your SAT scores need to show them that you can do well and that it isn't just chance, So getting 650M, 800V and then 800M, and 650V counts as a 1600, it's very nearly as good as getting 1600 straight, at 3 attempts college will begin to consider overall score and at 4-5 attempts they'll begin to look at average overall score. </p>
<p>so OP, your score for the purposes of a columbia, cor or penn app rose 200 points, you losing 120 in writing doesn't hurt you.</p>