I am senior of the class of 2017 and I’m looking to go into STEM, business, and/or finance. Although I’m skeptical of my chances, I’m looking at a few Ivy’s, specifically Cornell and U-Penn. As I was researching, I noticed that neither university requires the writing portion of the ACT or the essay portion of the SAT any longer for admission purposes. I’m just looking for some more information on these sections. What types of college still require it? Would submitting those scores help my odds even though they are not required? Are those sections important for people with specific majors in mind? I really don’t know a lot about the purpose of the writing/essay portion.
My two cents - you don’t want to be caught at the last moment wanting to apply to a school that requires the Essay…and you didn’t take it. So write the essay now when you write the test. Then you have every option available to you in the future.
Jus take the essay…It doesn’t make sense not to, since if you decide later on to apply to a school that requires it, you then have a problem.
Okay I figured I’d probably take it anyways for those reasons. If you could still find information as to what type of schools/majors use that data, that would be great. Additionally, let’s say I do great on the core SAT, but not so great on the writing portion, will that adversely affect my overall score? Can I choose to not submit the results of the writing portion to colleges that do not require it? Would that affect my admission chances?
I’ll take the opposite view, if your list is firm and none of the schools on it recommend the essay, then I don’t think you should bother.
The essay is scored separately and is not included at all in the 1600 total score for the SAT. You will have to check with college board as to whether or not you can withhold those results.