importance of SAT Writing Score?

<p>My daughter did much better on the Sat Writing than the Math and Lang. Will
any school look at? I heard most ignore it. Any good schools for 1750 SAT scores?</p>

<p>No offence but ask her to re-test. My six grader got 1770 without studying. I am not trying to put you down or anything, but it does seem to be low.</p>

<p>rstuben, welcome. Yes. There are many fine schools where an SAT score @ 250 points above the national average would put you in good shape. There are more that don't even require SAT scores at all. Sometimes the cc crowd forgets in the rareified air we breath up here that for most students and most colleges a 1750 is a "just fine" score.</p>

<p>As to the writing score, I can't comment specifically but I do know that at many schools it is still considered as the least valuable.</p>

<p>He got 1870 :-) I can't count.
Obviously I am not a college material any more.</p>

<p>rstuben,
I suggest you start another thread on the Parents forum asking for suggestions on schools in your D's range and that she'd be interested in attending. Along with her stats, give her EC's, awards & recognition, and what she is looking for in a school: Large U or LAC, what region of the country, academic interests, Greek life, athletics, women's college or coed, etc?</p>

<p>I think you'll get some helpful replies, and it'll be a great way to introduce yourself to the CC community. </p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

<p>1 - Each of the colleges to which D applied stated that the Math and CR scores were more important b/c the sch still haven't quite figured out how to use the Writing grade.</p>

<p>2 - I'd focus my search on colleges where D was in the range using CR and Math (1600 scale) - - and view schs where she where she was in the range /w boost from the Writing score as more of reach/match.</p>

<p>3 - I recall several thread headings for "average" students.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

<p>No offence but ask her to re-test. My six grader got 1770 without studying. I am not trying to put you down or anything, but it does seem to be low.>></p>

<p>No offense, but while it's wonderful that your son did so well on his scores in sixth grade, the question wasn't how the OP's daughter's compared to your son's, but how they compared to the broader applicant pool. The NATIONAL average for seniors taking the new SAT is just above 1500, so 1750 is hardly "low" in the grand scheme of things. A score of 1750 is acceptable at probably 70-80% of the colleges in the U.S.</p>

<p>To the original poster -- your daughter's grades and high school curriculum will be more important than her test scores. If you do start a new thread, be sure to indicate her unweighted GPA, any trends in her GPA (going up, going down, etc.), how many years of math/science/foreign language she'll have by graduation, and how many AP AND Honors courses she will have taken, if any (don't panic if she hasn't taken any).</p>

<p>But, honestly, there are MANY good schools out there for someone with her scores, so don't panic. That said, it never hurts to take the SAT again in the fall of senior year. Schools will take the highest score from each section over all the test sittings.</p>

<p>Carolyn's post is very good. If you post a separate thread, I'm sure you can get a lot of good schools to look at. Many, many schools don't even look at the SAT, and for hundreds of others she's perfectly in their range. There are a lot of wonderful schools that she would be a great fit for.</p>

<p>It's also a great idea for students who are not satisfied with their SAT scores to try the ACT -- my daughter had a terrific SAT writing score, but was weak on math & CR, so she elected to use her ACT scores instead, which were slightly better overall. </p>

<p>I do agree with Carolyn that grades & academics are more important -- I would look for consistency between the scores and the academics -- that is, your daughter's scores would be kind of low for an A+ student who is the class valedictorian, but probably would be seen as appropriate for a B+ student. Higher scores won't make up for a weak GPA -- so I am not sure whether it is worth it for a student with a 3.3 GPA to stress too much over scores -- such a student simply needs to have realistic expectations as to colleges (there are PLENTY that will accept the student -- check out "Colleges that Change Lives" at <a href="http://www.ctcl.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.ctcl.com&lt;/a> and the US News "A+ Colleges for B Students" list at <a href="http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/articles/brief/06average_brief.php%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/articles/brief/06average_brief.php&lt;/a> )</p>

<p>At the same time, a lower-than-expected score won't necessarily doom a student who has a very strong GPA. My daughter fit in the latter category -- she was ranked very near the top of her high school class, but just couldn't seem to do all that well on standardized tests. She applied to, and was accepted at, several reach colleges in any case, all where her SAT scores were clearly <em>below</em> range -- so obviously the grades were far more important than the scores. At the same time, if your daughter does have a high GPA and ends up aspiring to more competitive colleges, higher scores on a retake can only help.</p>

<p>If your d. just wants to be done with the process and move on, however, then check out the list of test-optional schools at <a href="http://www.fairtest.org%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.fairtest.org&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Rstuben, I just sent you a private message. You can read it by clicking on the "Private messages" link in the upper right hand corner of your screen.</p>

<p>Kelnowa - </p>

<p>please don't brag. I know a 12-yr.-old who got a 2370. There are miracle children out there. </p>

<p>A 1750 is very good for the majority of schools. I would recommend looking for schools that do look at the writing section.</p>

<p>Kaplan published a list of how schools were treating the writing section. It's now at least a year old, though:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.kaptest.com/Kaplan/Article/College/SAT/Learn-About-the-SAT/CO_sat_surveyresults.html;jsessionid=FCEWCVZ44TXKBLA3AQJXBM3MDUCBE2HC%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.kaptest.com/Kaplan/Article/College/SAT/Learn-About-the-SAT/CO_sat_surveyresults.html;jsessionid=FCEWCVZ44TXKBLA3AQJXBM3MDUCBE2HC&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Kelowna, I think that your posts in this thread are highly unnecessary and inappropriate. I hope that you will learn to see CC as a place where all parents can post their questions and concerns and get thoughtful, understanding, and honest answers. You are either trying to brag about your daughter to make other parents feel somehow inferior or you are ignorant about the college process and oblivious to social cues and norms. I'm hoping that you don't have any kids going through the college process so are simply clueless about the SAT and college admissions, but I can't see that being the only issue. You continually bring up your daughter's success on the SAT. Though you can and should be proud, her accomplishments should have no effect on how you see other students--in other words, comparing this high school junior to your sixth grader is illogical and insensitive. The OP's daughter will be able to find happiness and success at any one of the hundreds of schools in this country that will welcome her with open arms, even if her SAT scores don't go up at all. The SAT has no bearing on life.</p>

<p>Tell me you're not serious about suggesting that someone might "not be college material" because of a 1750 SAT?</p>

<p>and why exactly did you have your 6th grader taking the SATs?</p>

<p>Kelowna, if you can't see how self-vaunting, and gloating your post is, I don't supposed you can have passed Social Deportment 101. The OP came looking for help, and all you could do was denigrate her child's college aspirations---"Not everyone is college material."......Now, was that called for?!</p>

<p>sorry for my little outburst but I just felt that was such an insensitive comment on Kelowna's part.</p>

<p>My D did not do nearly as well on the Writing section as I know she can do- so I'm making her take the SATs again in Oct. I'm hoping she raises by at least 100 pts with a little practice. The only practice/coaching she did was for math, and it did pay off. It's just a shame she has to take the other 2 sections again- it's such an endurance test!</p>

<p>As to the "college material" comment -- I'll be taking my d. out to dinner this week to celebrate her straight A's for spring semester, and Dean's list status after her first year at an elite college where her test scores are below range. Studies have shown that the best predictor of college performance is NOT the test scores, but rather the high school GPA -- and my daughter' certainly is proof of that. Some kids just don't test well, but college classes are not graded based on anything similar to standardized tests -- college exams have specific and largely predictable content that can be studied for, without any trick questions. </p>

<p>The one SAT test that my d. did very extremely well on (above the norm for her college) was writing. It has become very apparent that <em>writing</em> is the one thing that really counts in college, at least for a student focusing on humanities. So I wouldn't worry about <em>any</em> kid whose strongest SAT is writing -- I think that is the area where kids who have had top scores sometimes fall down in college. It's one thing to mark off answers to superficial multiple choice questions -- it is quite another to provide in-depth written analysis, based on class readings and lectures, to an essay question on a college exam.</p>

<p>I'll second Calmom's comment, even though my kids are the opposite - high test scores and less impressive grades. The ability to perform to a standard over a semester or year-long academic course in high school is a pretty darn good predictor of the ability to do the same thing in college. SAT and ACT test something, for sure. But the University of California performed a pretty rigorous study comparing the predictive value of high school GPA vs. SAT scores to a student's success in college and found a much clearer correspondence to GPA than test scores. UC has adjusted its admissions standards accordingly. So if the OP's daughter did well in high school, an 1870 SAT score does not indicate an inability to have a successful college career at a very good University.</p>