<p>(posted also on Parents Forum)</p>
<p>What I find interesting is:
- Colleges may compare the essay to the student’s application essay. This may end up weeding out a lot of students who have been cheating by having their essays professionally written.</p>
<li>While other postings have quoted College Board as saying that errors of fact will not hurt essay’s scores, colleges probably will not be that charitable if they see students doing things like writing that “Anna Karenina” is a comedy, as occurred in a high scoring essay quoted in a story posted last week on this site. </li>
</ol>
<p>May 15 New York Times:
"Three years after the College Board increased students’ anxieties with its decision to add a handwritten essay to the SAT, and three months after the test made its debut, many universities are still grappling with how, when and even if they will use the new scores.</p>
<p>So far, less than half of the nation’s colleges and universities have said they will require next year’s applicants to submit writing scores. It remains an open question, however, whether they will give the essay scores as much weight as those on the reading and math sections. </p>
<p>Institutions may also decide to compare an applicant’s SAT essay with the application essay, which are typically more polished. </p>
<p>'We know of 429 out of about 1,600 four-year colleges that have said they’re going to require the writing test, but many of them are taking a wait-and-see attitude about using the scores in admissions, and that makes sense," said Brian O’Reilly, a College Board official. </p>
<p>The College Board itself is sounding a note of caution about using the first round of scores.</p>
<p>“We have never recommended that schools use it in admissions decisions right away,” said Chiara Coletti, a College Board spokeswoman. “Since this is a new test, it makes sense to be careful in how it’s used the first year…’”
<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/15/e...agewanted=print[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/15/e...agewanted=print</a></p>
<p>The link requires a free registration.</p>