<p>S is thinking about major in Engineering.
His test scores are fine but essay score seems below everage.</p>
<p>Just wondering how important is essay score for UR Engineering major?</p>
<p>And, how about the graded writing paper? Any subject? History, English, Religion or even AP Econ? Dose admission office want to see the comments from teacher?</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>Thanks for your questions, arling. I apologize if my response appears somewhat inconclusive - my hope is that it will provide some guidance.</p>
<p>With the exception of a particularly poor performance on any one section of a transcript or standardized test, I am most concerned with how well a student has performed in the context of his/her interests. If your son is interested in engineering, his ‘Writing’ score will not be as meaningful an indication of his potential for success in our flexible curriculum and will likely have less of an impact on his admissions decision than will his math scores. If he were declaring an interest in Political Science and his writing scores were weak, it may be a bigger concern.</p>
<p>BUT… With all that said, it is still important that he is able to exhibit strong writing skills. Though we do not require a graded essay, including one in his application may compensate for weak ‘Writing’ scores. He can include an essay from any subject, with or without comments. It is also important that his personal essay is proofread.</p>
<p>Though our flexible curriculum permits an engineering student to focus intently on engineering, our engineering faculty is proud to encourage a ‘full spectrum experience’ among students of the school of engineering. ‘Full spectrum experience’ is a term I am stealing from the Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He believes strongly that engineers should graduate with the ability to communicate theoretical and conceptual ideas in engineering to the public in lay-mans terms. So, your son is eventually going to have to develop those strong writing skills - not to say that he already hasn’t. A poor test score is not necessarily indicative of poor writing skills, so we’ll want to see those skills, or strong potential to develop them, demonstrated somewhere in his application.</p>
<p>I hope this helps.</p>