<p>Is it true that Cornell doesn't look at the writing section on the SAT? That would be really nice because that is my weakest point. Math I have a near perfect score in and since I'm in AP English this year I'm hoping it will help me get up on the critical reading so that I can have a near perfect on that too. So any one have experience on whether or not they look at writing section?</p>
<p>Also because I don't want to post this 1,000 times does anyone know about the following schools? Duke, Stanford, Emory, Georgetown, North Western</p>
<p>Look up each school’s profile on collegeboard.com, if you look at the SAT/AP/CLEP section it shows what the Middle 50% of First-Year Students made on the SAT. If the writing section is not listed, then it’s safe to say they don’t care about it.</p>
<p>Cornell does not, and for most of the schools that do, they look at it with a grain of salt because of how under-represented it is in the test and how subjective it is. </p>
<p>To get to your other schools:
Duke - Yes
Stanford - Yes
Emory - Yes
Georgetown - No.
North Western - Yes.</p>
<p>If SAT writing is your weak point, though, you really should not give it too much thought; however, bear in mind that the schools which do use the writing portion also generally at least look at your essay, so I should hope that is well-done.</p>
<p>Edit: Also, I wouldn’t rely solely on AP Lit/Lang for bringing up CR… These classes tend to teach much higher level skills which actually will do more fogging of your judgment on the SAT than clearing of it, from my experience. I would seek out tutoring or a prep book or something and just practice both of these sections. However, grats on Math, but be aware that an awful lot of people have stellar math scores, it’s the most commonly high-scored section, from my experience, and most colleges care about it the least.</p>
<p>Do you think they cover it up with their hand or something when looking at it? Any subjective human will be more impressed by a 760 than a low 600 whether they say they ‘look’ at it or not.</p>
<p>They do look at it. All colleges do. They just don’t care about it as much as the other two. They will in a few years though. The writing section is not subjective at all, the only thing subjective about it is the essay, and CB is smart enough not to have the essay get you down from an 800.</p>
<p>Well, it isn’t really that fair if you think about it. There is one math section, which is the easiest to do well in so even if you’re really good at math it is harder to tell. Then there are two english type sections so the people that are good at english have it a lot easier, IMO.</p>
<p>lol! so true. the fact of the matter is that it will sway them one way or another. just realize that getting an 800 in writing and a 650 in math and a 650 in cr will not take you as far as you would think (in regard to getting accepted to cornell). still, a 500 in writing and a 800 in both math and cr might be a little alarming for cornell.</p>
<p>Many scholarship programs do not consider the Writing portion. For example, the University of Alabama does not. Baylor University does not (see their merit scholarship calculator here: <a href=“Undergraduate Admissions | Baylor University”>Undergraduate Admissions | Baylor University; The ROTC programs for Air Force, Navy and Army publish minimum standard for M and CR, but not for W.</p>
<p>On the other hand, the U of California system does count the W section and sums it along with CR and M in a formula used, for example, at UCSD and UC Davis. The others have unpublished formulas so I cannot say whether they use W or not.</p>
<p>My gut feeling is that adcoms at top schools still think in terms of CR + M on a 1600 scale. This has been the measure for 50+ years. Sure, these colleges now publish all three in the CDS and freshman profiles, but inasmuch as the SAT Writing section in only about six years old, admissions officers who learned their craft prior to the inclusion of the W section will be inclined to discount it as less important.</p>
<p>Well, first off, most Adcoms are grad students and such, so they are well-familiar with the 2400 system’s existence; however, for whatever reason Cornell has decided not to publish their class’ writing scores. Therefore, I’d suspect they simply don’t get that component from the Collegeboard. However, I nor anybody outside of the adcom has any way of knowing this. Another possibility is that it could just be that when the scores are entered into the system, the writing one’s left off at inventory time, so that the ultimate reader doesn’t see it. You need to remember that everything goes into their computer system, and if there’s no slot for writing, there’s no temptation to cover it up or peek at it, it’s simply not presented to them.</p>
<p>There are other schools, such as Swarthmore, which will look at the Writing score but not the actual essay, which I feel is a much fairer way of doing this process.</p>
<p>Writing really does act as a valuable measure in college applicants, and though it is by far the most easily “gamed” section of the SAT, it is also, and more importantly, acting as a way to verify that you are at least capable of feigning an ability to write for a section or two and an essay.</p>
<p>^I’m pretty sure they can see the Writing score because on the score report confirmation, it showed that all sections were reported to Cornell. Whether they CARE about it is a whole other thing.</p>