I took the SAT with optional essay earlier this month. I am proud to say that I did very well on the test portion. However, I did not get the results I’d hoped for in the essay. I thought that was okay - the essay is optional, so sending that score in is optional too, right? Wrong. I should’ve looked into it more before taking the test, because now I’m stuck with a great overall score and a bad essay score. Is there a way to get around this? What can I do? (Besides retake the test). Will colleges that are essay optional even take that section into consideration?
You might be overthinking the difference in the scores. From what I know, a 18 is a “good enough” average for top tier schools. How are you compared to your top choice schools 50% in the new SAT. If you are well above average (this would mean around 30+ points at least) then even if you had a lower essay (15ish+), you should be fine regardless.