Does the essay score matter?

<p>How much of a weight to colleges place on the Essay? My highest writing score after taking the SAT twice is 760 but my highest essay is only 9. I'm considering retaking just to boost my essay score. I would be doing engineering and these are the colleges I'm interested in if this helps:
MIT
Cornell
Brown
Penn
J. Hopkins
RPI
WPI
Carnegie Mellon
Columbia
Lehigh</p>

<p>MIT doesn’t even look at the writing section (they use CR + Math only). Be sure to do research on those colleges. ;)</p>

<p>On the other hand, some colleges may use the SAT essay in admissions.</p>

<p>@DMOC: MIT still doesn’t take into account the writing section?</p>