According to a survey of college admissions officers at 374
schools conducted at Kaplan, as much as 58 percent of
colleges will be checking the SAT essays of applicants for
potential writing level discrepancies, while 15
percent will be evaluating the SAT essay of all
applicants.
Timothy Brunold, dean of undergraduate admissions at
USC said, "we will definitely take a look at the SAT
essay if the student scored poorly on the writing section but
wrote a brilliant personal essay."
Lee Stetson, dean of admissions at the University of
Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, says the essay test will give
admissions officers a better feel for applicants' writing and
verbal skills and their ability to perform under ``constraint.''
Ted Spencer, director of undergraduate admissions at the
University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and trustee of the
College Board stated, "The SAT essay will be a first
draft, written under timed conditions not unlike the on-demand
writing of a college "blue book" exam. It will complement the
student's traditional application essay and give us a better,
more complete understanding of the student's writing abilities."
Jerome A Lucido Vice Provost for Enrollment Management
and Director of Undergraduate Admissions of the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill said that the SAT writing
sample "will make the exam a more relevant and useful tool for
evaluating student performance, for predicting college success,
and for stimulating the high school curriculum."
Ben Streetman, Dean of the College of Engineering
at the University of Texas at Austin said, "This new
requirement will be a great help to us in choosing students who
can succeed in engineering. One of the most important
skills an engineer has is the ability to present his or
her ideas verbally and in writing. Virtually every
engineering project begins with a written proposal,
requires interim reports and culminates in a written
summary. Professional success in engineering depends
not only on the ability to apply the techniques of math and
science to solve problems, but also on the engineer's ability
to write those proposals and reports in a way that helps
others understand the work."
What does this mean for your student?
· It means your student might not get into the college of her
choice if her SAT essay is of much lower quality
than her admissions essay.
· It means that students won't be able to fool admissions
officers into thinking they have better skills by hiring someone
else to write their essays for them.
. It means that even if your student is majoring in math,
science or engineering she must do well on the SAT
Essay.
· It means that your student might not get into the college
of his choice if after reading his essay they don't think he'll
do well on college essay exams.
· It means your student must do well on this portion of
the test to maximize her chances of getting into many
top schools.
How can my student do well on the SAT Essay?
As I define it, doing well on the SAT Essay involves succeeding
in doing two things at once:
1. Writing an essay that will score well
and
2. Writing an essay that will impress college admissions
officers
For your student to score well she needs to learn the five
characteristics that all high-scoring essays have in
common and develop the skills to put these into her writing in
under 25 minutes and during the pressure of test day.
Second, your student must write an essay that shows how
insightful and intelligent he is so that
admissions officers are impressed by the quality of the writing.
To learn what it takes to write a great essay I recommend the
following resources:
The Official Guide to the New SAT published by the College Board
and available on their web site College Board.
This site has several examples of essays graded by College
Board graders which can give you a good sense of what it
takes to get a high score.
Second, I recommend the website Rocket">www.rocketscore.com">Rocket Review which has a
computerized program to help you grade several essay topics
available there.
Third, I recommend my e-book "How to Write Fast and Effectively
for the New SAT" which teaches the 6 steps to success on the SAT
Essay, includes dozens of classroom tested exercises and many
examples of real high scoring essays. It is available at Sat Essay.
