<p>One thing that people might consider is that at least two programs I know of (graduate programs in engineering and in physics) allows applicants to submit just unofficial test scores by the application due date. They don’t require official scores until the applicant is admitted and chooses to accept. As we all know, the AW scores aren’t reported in the unofficial report, so this tells me that these programs must not be taking AW very highly into consideration. I imagine many graduate programs do the same sort of thing.</p>