<p>I don't know whether colleges have the right to view your SAT essay?</p>
<p>Do you honestly think colleges are going to read your SAT essays on top of reading all of the application essays? </p>
<p>They see a score and move on.</p>
<p>I wouldn't be surprised if some did read the SAT essay.</p>
<p>Well, I just think that you might get a not so great if not average score on the SAT essay (maybe due to the limited time) but your application essays are kind of amazing, then adcoms may doubt your candor in the application essays. (like you probably have other write them)</p>
<p>The College have the ability to see your essays, and since they can view them electronically, many probably do. I'm sure every college has a slightly different policy on how/when/why/if they look at any given student's essay</p>
<p>They don't usually. I know that.</p>
<p>Wait, so it wouldn't be a good idea to be, er, "creative" with a personal example on the SAT essay?</p>
<p>I think it terribly unlikely that colleges use the SAT essay as any sort of admissions factor. First, when you send them a score report from the college board, they only get the raw numbers. That means, to view the essays, the adcoms would have to go into college board records and look for each applicant. I doubt this practice exists because it is time consuming and tells little about a students writing abilities except for analyzing how fast a student can think on his feet (25 min, short time to write). If a college has you fill out two sometimes three essays, they are not going to have the time to sit and scrutinize another one. Plus, if you are using factual examples, which from my experience gives you better scores because the references are more concrete, what practicality would the adcoms benefit in learning about you as an applicant. My SAT essay was about "Death of a Salesman" by Arthur Miller and "The Glass Menagerie" by Tennessee Williams. Although I got a 12, colleges wouldn't learn anything about me by reading the essay other than that I payed attention in English that year.</p>
<p>:p Colleges know that the SAT essay doesn't necessarily reflect your writing skill. For instance, I got a 9 on one of my SATs, yet I recieved a writing scholarship from a university.</p>
<p>Go figure :p</p>
<p>Actually, in many ways the SAT essay is more "real" that the essays submitted on applications that have been reviewed and edited by parents, helpful teachers, tutors, etc., etc. Most admissions folks understand the conditions under which the SAT essay is written and evaluate it in that context.</p>
<p>So do they check or not?
Because I am planning on using the same formulaic essay (with the same two examples) as my last essay, which I got a 12 on. I will definitely get a 12 on this too. Essentially, they will both look like the same essay.
But if colleges see both essays, they will know I just used a formula to get a 12 rather than actually study. That will look really bad.</p>
<p>yes, some colleges do download your essays to read.</p>
<p>How bout ivies?</p>
<p>@idlaunva If you used a formula and got a 12, you got a 12. Lots of people use a formula and cannot achieve a 12. (By the way, may I ask what that formula is? I’m a good writer - I’ve even published a few things - but for some reason I score consistent 9s on SAT essays.)</p>
<p>Colleges occasionally view SAT essays when they suspect too much help on app essays–for instance if they have reason to think you’re not a great writer but your essays are super polished and well-written, they might check your SAT essay to see if your writing style or ability matches.</p>
<p>This is <em>very</em> rare, though; they simply don’t have time or inclination to do it with any frequency.</p>