How important is the writing section on the SATs now?

<p>Hey guys, I am no longer a high school student. I was 4 years ago. I am currently a senior at a US News top 20 college. Back in the day, when I was applying to college the SAT writing score was not deemed as important. Most schools I applied to just looked at SAT Math and Critical Reading. </p>

<p>When I was applying to colleges, I knew the writing score was not important, but it would become just as important as Math/Critical Reading in the coming years. However now that a couple of years have passed since I have applied, how important is the writing section?</p>

<p>This question is being posted because I have a younger sibling who is the process of applying to colleges. He just took his diagnostic and made a very skewed score in the sense that his Reading/Math was only a 1190 but his writing was 700+. Overall score was 2000+.</p>

<p>So my question stands, has the writing section become just as important as Reading/Math in college admissions, or does it continue to be Reading/Math >>>>>> Writing?</p>

<p>Your math doesn’t make sense (1190+790=1980, not 2000+). Aside from that, it seems it’s still Reading/Math>Writing.</p>

<p>I would disagree. From our college visits this past summer (to selective LAC’s and Brown) it sounds like the Writing section of the SAT is now as important as the Math and the Reading. However, they con’t care as much about your essay score (1-12), although that is a part of the overall 800 pt max writing score on the SAT. They all value the ACT just as much as the SAT, and if you are applying to a selective school, it needs to be the ACT Plus Writing (includes the 12 pt essay–b ut the essay is NOT part of your English score on the SAT, so that differs from the SAT), not the plain ACT. On the ACT Plus Writing, they look at all 4 main sections (Math, Reading, English, and Science), but not as heavily at the essay component (I’ve heard it is looked at if a candidate is “on the fence”).</p>

<p>OP</p>

<p>The answer, which I’m sure isn’t what you wanted to hear – It depends.</p>

<p>Some schools give it equal weight to SAT-CR and SAT-M; Some schools don’t count it at all; Some either haven’t said what they do or have no formal policy.</p>