<p>I got a 790 on the writing section with a 9, basically terrible essay because I didn't miss any multiple choice questions. I got a character's name mixed up when describing a commonly-read novel, and it wasn't very comprehensive or cohesive...It was basically an "I slept for 4 hours last night, and now I'm in a strange school with wet hair and baggy eyes and absolutely no clue why I'm wearing this" moment. Ironically, I got my highest score for each section that day. Will admissions officers at Duke and similar schools actually use this essay or only the 790? My common app essay is unspeakably better.</p>
<p>I dont think college will actually receive you SAT essay, just the scores you got. I could be wrong though, but I dont know why they would waste their time reading them when they already have a score.</p>
<p>Unfortunately the answer is yes they will read them. Different schools have different policies. You can find whether the essay is used in admissions by checking out each school’s profile on collegeboard.com. Here is Duke’s link:
[College</a> Search - Duke University - Duke - SAT®, AP®, CLEP®](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)</p>
<p>Being “used” implies that the score is taken into consideration, not that the actual essay is read. </p>
<p>I’m in your situation. I got a 780 with an 8 essay. Colleges know that a 25 minute formulaic essay is not the best representation of your writing abilities. A poor essay score will probably have negligible impact, esp if you got a high score overall. </p>
<p>Colleges can based your writing ability on the untimed essays you write them. They have no need for the SAT essay. However, it is still “considered” in admissions, although lightly.</p>
<p>The SAT essay is a standard for comparison to look at things like your college essays. If they see an absolutely fantastically written college essay, yet a mediocre or poorly-written SAT essay, they will have reason to believe that something is fishy with your college essay.</p>
<p>Really ? I was so sure the Essays din’t go. :/</p>
<p>Wow, I didn’t know it had that much of an impact. If my stats are in Duke’s range, could something so insignificant really break my chances? I’m sure they don’t expect an excellent SAT essay from anyone.</p>
<p>I’ve never heard of an instance where the essay itself is considered in admission. The adcoms have quite enough reading to do already, and the application essays are infinitely more relevant to your acceptance/rejection than a 25-minute canned essay. </p>
<p>What that College Board link means is that the writing portion (including the essay score /12) is considered in admissions. There are some schools, like the University of Chicago and Cornell, that disregard the writing section entirely and consider the SAT /1600 for admission. Duke is not one of them, which is why the “Essay Considered” category is checked off.</p>
<p>Ouch… I took the SAT twice and…</p>
<p>1st try : 730 writing (-1MC and 8 essay)
2nd try : 750 writing (-1MC and 8 essay)</p>
<p>If the SAT essay plays a big role in admissions I’m screwed… 
I honestly don’t think it would have a big impact tho. I mean, there are people, like me, who write much better when they have 25 days do write an essay (as in the college essay) compared to 25mn I’m given for the SAT essay. Surely colleges will know that?</p>
<p>Many schools just use it as a verification of your admissions essay to make sure you didn’t have someone else write it. They understand that you only had 25 minutes to write your SAT essay. They also understand that you may have grown as a writer between when you wrote your SAT essay and when you wrote your admissions essay. They just make sure that the same general voice/style is present in both essays.</p>
<p>Post #8 by glassesarechic pretty much sums this up. Unless your essay score was abominable for top school standards (aka 6 or lower), it wouldn’t be a big deal as long as your overall Writing score was on par with the school in question. And, as stated before, some top schools don’t even consider Writing. On average, an admissions officer spends about 15 minutes reading through an applicant’s file. So unless there was a real cause for concern, I don’t think the adcom would know anything about your SAT essay except the score on a 2-12 scale.</p>
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Disagree. In the event that they do use the SAT essay at all to figure out if an applicant has fudged his college essays or not, they are most likely looking for writing behaviors, inclinations, patterns, etc. Quality of writing in 25 mins what is supposed to be a formula essay vs. writing an essay taking weeks to prepare, they most likely expect, will greatly vary. At any end, it’s hard to believe they look at the SAT essay with any seriousness.</p>
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<p>They don’t get a copy of the essay itself. They get the score /12 when an applicant sends in his SAT scores.</p>
<p>I’m 100% sure I read on collegeboard’s site that colleges DO get the scanned copy of our essays…</p>
<p>Just can’t find the link now.</p>
<p>We just returned from a visit to Penn; during the info session we were told that each admissions counselor is responsible for reading and reviewing 100 - 125 applications per day, including reading the Common App essay, the Common App short essay, the “Why Penn” essay and the additional supplemental essay, in other words, 400-500 essays per day. While it wasn’t brought up, I find it hard to believe that they would actively seek to add another 100-125 SAT essays to their daily workload. I suspect they will see the writing score and then read the other essays that you have specifically written for the purpose of admission; barring a complete disconnect between your score and your submitted essays, (e.g., A score of 12 on the essay combined with poorly composed, barely literate, crayon-written essays), I seriously doubt that a reviewer will seek out additional reading.</p>
<p>Well since you said your Common App essay is better, I wouldn’t worry - the adcom at Duke will definitely understand that you were probably under pressure during the test and whatnot. And btw I got a 770 w/ a 12 essay so yeah…that goes to show essays don’t carry much weight in the overall scoring.</p>
<p>@OP - 790 score is very impressive. The fact that you got 9 on the essay will not make it less so. I have to agree with previous posts that it is very unlikely that adcoms read SAT essays. Adding to vinceh comment about Penn, Penn asks for all the SAT and ACT scores, if an applicant took 3 SATs, would they read 3 additional (hand-written and scanned, btw) essays for this applicant? I doubt it.</p>