New SAT & College Admissions

<p>How do colleges select your highest SAT score with the new SAT exam? Do they select the 3 highest scores in each of the 3 sections that make up the exam? Or do they select the highest of your attempt(s)? May someone please clarify this concept for me. Thanks :)</p>

<p>Many colleges still are not sure how they will use the scores from the new sat. I attended a college night with Reed, Lewis and Clark, Willamete, Puget Sound, and Whitman Colleges and the admissions people there said that they would be looking at the math and verbal and not pay too much attention to the writing. Most of these schools felt that the essay portion was not a fair measure of a student's writing ability. Most require several writing samples as part of their application process.</p>

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Most of these schools felt that the essay portion was not a fair measure of a student's writing ability. Most require several writing samples as part of their application process.

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<p>That's total bull and a big mistake for those colleges to not count the essay portion. What do they want - several writing samples which may or may not have been written by parents or other outside sources? With the SAT, you can't cheat. I know it's only 25 minutes, but it's still the best option. It's not like I got a 12 on my essay; I got a 10. But why are these colleges are ignoring the writing section? I hope I didn't waste my free time going over stupid grammar rules for nothing. Screw admissions. They don't understand.</p>

<p>Panic, i concur.</p>

<p>I know that the UCs are definitely looking at the Writing section (I think equally) cause they're the ones that wanted a new test in the first place.</p>

<p>:)</p>

<p>Whats the use adding the writing section if they really don't care to use it. I hope the colleges I apply to look into it. I really dont like writing but most persons from the Bahamas usually do really well in English when they attend US colleges. I guess its because we write like two essays a week since grade 9 and they mark hard.</p>

<p>I know Clark Univ. said at an info session, they are not using the writing portion of the SAT. They have their own essay "test" for placement I think.</p>

<p>panic, I agree with you. Please remember that this was just five schools and I think the bottom line is that they do not know exactly how they will weight the new SAT. The writing section was added because UC threatened to not use SATs as an admissions tool. I think we will just have to wait and see.</p>

<p>I just attended a Stanford tour and the admissions officer said they won't be looking at the writing section too much, rather, they'll be considering it as a supplement and be paying most attention to critical reading and math.</p>

<p><a href="http://web.reed.edu/apply/sat_opinion.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://web.reed.edu/apply/sat_opinion.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>"And finally, to the question, what is a good score on the new 2400-point SAT, I say just invoke a little SAT math: divide your score by three then multiply that number by two to compare to the old 1600-point scale. Confused? Take heart. Reed is sticking to the old 1600-point (verbal/critical reading + math) scale."</p>

<p>That can be interpreted two different ways; either they are using cr+m, or they are using cr+m+w on the old scale by using a little math. I am presuming that the dean of admissions was not being sarcastic and rokko has his facts mixed up. However, I could be wrong. I cannot tell what he means by "Reed is sticking to the old 1600-point (verbal/critical reading + math) scale" in its context. Any insight?</p>