My SAT writing is much lower than my CR+M. My CR+M is a 1470, but my SAT writing is only a 610, and I am worried about being rejected due to my low writing scores. I am looking to going to a business school, and hopefully majoring in finance.
How much does SAT writing matter for schools like:
NYU Stern
USC
UCLA
Carnegie Mellon
UVA
Boston College
Cornell
Emory
University of Michigan
Georgetown
Thanks!
It matters enough that you should do some work to bring it up. I’d suggest buying Erica Meltzer’s Ultimate Guide to SAT Grammar and finding a way to write a good essay.
You definitely want to work on bringing up the writing score in order to improve your overall SAT score. You’re currently only at 2080 which would definitely be a reach for some of the higher-tiered schools. Writing is one of the easiest ones to improve though! I wouldn’t focus as much as the essay since it’s much more subjective. However, it is important to focus on PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE in order to learn all the ins and outs of the grammar and tricks of the trade used in the writing section. Keep taking practice tests until you get the hang of what they’re asking, and you’ll start to see the same types of questions come up over and over again. The first time I took the PSAT, I got a score that would have put me under 600 on the writing section… I took a full practice test every week before the real SAT (for 10 weeks straight). My essay was only alright (9 out of 12), but I got 60/60 on the MC subscore which was sufficient to give me an 800 overall.
All the colleges you list save one include the writing section in their evaluation to determine admission. Georgetown does not use the SAT writing section to determine admission.
Cornell disregards the writing section completely and looks at your score out of 1600 using reading and math. However, I suggest to you to raise your writing score using books - it’s all just grammar rules and is the easiest out of all three sections, as stated by previous posters