Has anyone gotten in with an 8 on the essay? Should I retake a 35 ACT?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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I asked this question in another forum but didn’t get many responses. Since MIT is my top choice at the moment, I thought I would try my luck here.

I am a junior and I took the ACT last fall and was very happy to learn that I received a 35 composite score. Unfortunately, when my writing score came back two weeks later, it was an 8. It was my fault because although I prepped for four weeks for the exam, I never even looked at how to write the essay. I just figured that I was a pretty good writer and didn’t need to prepare for it. After getting the 8, I read over the essay section in the review book and realized that writing the essay is pretty formulaic, none of which I followed.

I have always felt that I didn’t want to be one of those test warriors you see on CC but my English score was a 33 and now my combined English and writing score is a 30 according to ACT. This is on the very low end for MIT and especially troubling for me because I am Asian.

Has anyone had experience with submitting a low writing score and been successful in being admitted? Have any of you that applied RD this year submitted an 8 or lower writing score? Should I retake the test? I really don’t want to but I don’t want MIT to think I can’t write well. Any help you can provide me would be very much appreciated!

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How did you get a 35 with a 33 in English and a 30 in writing? If everything else is a 36, and it is only the english that is low, if it is bothering you that much, take it again. My son got deferred from MIT, and he had a 36 on the english part, but a 35 CS. We were told, once you hit that high a score, retakes are not needed as they just check off the part that says: test score good? check and they move onto the rest of your app.

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It should not hurt you in the admission process. Nobody pays any attention to the writing score after you pass 8. Especially at STEM schools.

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Agree with seal16. Application essays are very important however, especially at MIT where they use their own application.

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My scores were 36 Math, 36 Science, 34 Reading, and 33 English for a composite score of 35. The ACT takes your English score and essay score to calculate a separate writing score which in my case was 33 and 8 = 30.

Thanks @seal16‌ @bsalum and @ZBD5421‌ !

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@Multiverse7:

Using your individual scores, I get a 34 for your composite score.

How did you arrive at a 35?

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36+36+34+33 =139
139/4 = 34.75 which rounds to 35

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^^ Thanks, yes that’s right. Does anyone else have an opinion on whether I should retake it?

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IMO, it’s not necessary – MIT did not look at the SAT and ACT writing scores for several years (and I’m not even totally sure they do look at them now).

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Thanks @bouders for catching me on that.
Serves me right for pasting that easy computation into a debugger window, which rounds down. My mistake…

Back to @Multiverse7’s question, retaking the SAT to improve on what you have already would not be a good use of your time.

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^^ Lol integer division.

I don’t think retaking either test is necessary - for example I only got an 8 on my SAT essay.

Additionally, MIT has a Freshman Essay Evaluation that every incoming freshman must take (unless you scored 5 on AP Lang or Lit), which they probably consider a better indicator of writing ability since you don’t have the harsh time limit. The FEE is also used to determine whether you should take a writing (CI-HW) your first year.

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Thanks everyone! Everyone seems to be in a agreement that I shouldn’t retake it. I’ll be glad not to have to waste any upcoming weekends prepping for and taking the exam.

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My kid had 35 on ACT, but also had SAT scores and subject tests. If you got a 35, you shouldn’t bother retaking the test, There are better ways to use your limited time.

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Multiverse7 - Have you applied to any of their summer programs? They are free and if you get in and complete the program, it looks very good on the college application.

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@bordertexan Thanks for your comments. No, I didn’t apply to MIT’s summer programs but I did apply to RSI and some other research programs.