<p>Do colleges see your SAT essay?</p>
<p>Can they request it somehow? Will you know if they do?</p>
<p>I'm scared that I'll get penalized for including false facts in my SAT essay if they see it.</p>
<p>Colleges are able to see your SAT essay, and some colleges indicate in their Common Data Set filings that they look at it. </p>
<p>It’s unclear how much it matters if you make up facts when writing an SAT essay. The test-taker I know best used real facts to make factual points, but the essay is mostly supposed to be a writing exercise, is known to be done under time pressure, and is scored to emphasize writing skill rather than recall of facts.</p>