Admissions Officials Shrug at SAT Writing Test

Reader Comments
Back to article

I recently was denied admission to every single one of the colleges I applied to. I was told by the College Board that I had received a 1500 SAT score which translated into a 3.8 GPA. I was also recently told by the Admission Departments of many of the schools I applied to that basically the writing portion of the SAT is completely meaningless to them. I worked my ass off for 4 years to get amazing grades and even better test scores because I was told if I did that I would have no problem getting into college, but now I'm being told that my best wasn't good enough. I was NEVER informed by my HS counselors, SAT officials, or University officials that the writing score would not be looked at. This is starting to look like the best kept secret. It does not seem fair to me to leave students in the dark about this. I was specifically told that EVERY single part of my SAT score would be looked at in the admissions process but this turned out to be a huge lie. I had to dig VERY deep into University sites to find the tiny two sentence paragraph that stated that writing scores would not be looked at. Is it just me or does it seem that this should be widely advertised during the testing and application processes?

Wensdai of CA 4:27PM April 24, 2012

I'm doing a project for my Thoery of knowledge class and was wondering it there are certain colleges who don't look at SAT scores during the admission process. Are there any specific statistics that could go along with that?

Lilly of MD 2:55PM December 15, 2008

i heard on the news that college admission office don't look at SAT scores anymore. colleges are telling students not to take SAT or the ACT test anymore. they said that they only look at the class courses and the extracurricular. they are saying that the SAT and the ACT dosen't really matter anymore.

of VA 12:47PM October 03, 2008

How many times can I take the SAT test? are they going to take into consideration all my scores or only the highest? Please can you answer this question?
Thank you!!

C Monroy of VA 10:13PM September 19, 2008

20 minutes of writing simply cannot measure the strength of a student's writing accurately. Most need to write, rewrite, and rewrite again to achieve a decent-sounding essay. Under such an absurd time constraint while answering a relatively vague question that one must form a definite opinion on, few students can succeed. It does not measure creativity or talent, simply a student's reflex to write the first thing that comes off the top of their head with virtually no thought to facts, spelling, or lyricism.
^Look, that is ONE paragraph. It took approximately 3 minutes to write one paragraph. Times that by five paragraphs equals 15 minutes. It takes the student approximately two minutes to answer the question, leaving 3 minutes at the end to edit an entire essay. That one paragraph above requires at least TEN MINUTES of revision. It's crap!
And anyways, doesn't the admissions essay itself show enough of the student's actual writing skills anyways?

Maebe of ME 8:38PM July 19, 2008

As a District Sales Manager, I review and edit sales letters, quotes, and other various communications from our sales people to our clients. It is absolutely shocking to me how poorly many of the newer COLLEGE RECRUITS do when it comes to writing simple thank you letters or endorsements regarding the items they are trying to sell and make a living from.
It astounds me daily that colleges continue to down grade the quality of their expectations. It really blows my mind that college kids or their parents, pay so much money to attend schools that have zero idea what is happening out here in the real world.
People need skills to be successful. They simply must be able to communicate both verbally and through written form in order to succesfully move around in the business world of today.
Cell phones, text messaging, and other short cuts do contribute to the over all lack of grammatical proficiency, or in their language, how to spell.
I do wonder why with a 32% response we even care about those schools? Why not post the names of those schools so the other 68% (this is called the majority) can make fun of them, recruit their students and generally malign institutions who if they are not actually challenging people to do well, must be in it for just the money?
We have grades to score how we did compared to others or to the curriculum. What is the point if it doesn't matter if we can read or write or do math? Why does it matter if once we leave college, we are dumber for having attended?

Dave Williams of CA 8:19PM June 24, 2008