<p>In an article in today's LA Times, USC's Director of Admissions was quoted as saying USC does find the essay section of the SAT, as currently formatted, to be helpful in making admissions decisions. His point was that they use the standardized 25-minute essay as a point of comparison to very well-written CA essays. Other universities, such as UCLA and Stanford say they also compare SAT essays with stellar application essays to discern, if possible, if it truly seems like the genuine work of the student applying. I thought I'd bring this to our forum to remind future applicants that colleges have the ability to actually read your SAT essay, not just get the SAT score on that section. According to Mr. Brunhold, USC chooses to do that--not sure if this is standard for all applicants in the finalists pool or if certain ones are red flagged. However, other top universities, such as MIT, have also come out saying they definitely pay attention to the SAT essays, in contrast to other schools who may not even take the essay section score into account. The gist of the article is that if certain universities find the essay portion valid to their application review, will they go on to require the future optional essay section? The obstacle there is it will require students to pay an additional fee, posing an obstacle to lower income students to apply. Arg!</p>
<p>Yes, but by having the SAT essay (assuming ACT writing section as well) to compare with the common app essays, it reduces the likelihood of those that can afford to pay to have the CA essays written/edited for them sneaking through the system, right? Without looking at the financial issues and simply that of fairness, I always wanted to throw the common app essays out and instead lock students in a room for few hours and have them write an essay (which is the SAT/ACT essay done in a hurried 25 minutes). I know too many students that pay “college advisor” firms - or other students or have their parents, etc., playing wordsmith to their essays to the point that it is hardly theirs anymore. And sadly, I know of one student that bought an entire app essay (not at USC) but he also bought his high school essays so I suppose he was consistent. 8-| I am happy to know they compare the work of the test essay and the CA essay. Good info.</p>