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Hi I'm a senior this year. I got a 740 on the Sat2 writing , but I only got a subscore of 56 on the essay portion. Will this be detrimental to my admission to Stanford? Should I retake? Or am I worried about nothing?
BTW: my GPA, other standardized test scores, and EC's are all very good

By Grad05 (Grad05) on Tuesday, September 14, 2004 - 10:58 pm: Edit

bump

By Stanfordman99 (Stanfordman99) on Tuesday, September 14, 2004 - 11:10 pm: Edit

My friend had a 640 in writing the first time, retook it to get a 670, then retook it a final time to get a 740 whcih he was proud of. He was admitted to Stanford regular decision.

His other scores were phenomenal though, so I dunno.

By Irock1ce (Irock1ce) on Tuesday, September 14, 2004 - 11:30 pm: Edit

as long as u have an average of like 700+, you've got a ticket to the game. Dont worry about it. Go and start a organization or a club or something with that time.

By Grad05 (Grad05) on Wednesday, September 15, 2004 - 09:06 pm: Edit

Thanks for the responses everyone. I am very happy with the 740 overall score, but I guess I was a little uneasy about the low essay score. I suppose I shouldn't worry about it then. Any other opinions and feedback would be appreciated.
Thanks again

By Grad05 (Grad05) on Thursday, September 16, 2004 - 05:59 pm: Edit

bump

By Nngmm (Nngmm) on Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - 01:34 pm: Edit

Invest your time in writing good application essays instead. No score will get you in automatically. 740 is good enough to be in the running.

By Jellybean24 (Jellybean24) on Saturday, October 02, 2004 - 10:09 am: Edit

Chill. 740 isn't going to hurt you and it will probably help you. Writing is one of those subjects that most test-takers excell in, so yes, everyone I know has mid to upper 700 scores. You've proven that you can write well with a 740. Even with an 800 in writing, it's more of a "so what" than an 800 in Chem, Bio, or a Language.

By Farmmom (Farmmom) on Saturday, October 02, 2004 - 09:12 pm: Edit

My daughter was worried about the same thing with a lower score than yours. I told her that you have other opportunities to prove your writing skills, namely the essays. I don't think the SAT2 Writing Test & essay subscore was the biggest factor in the ap coz she got in. Mostly I think your scores have to be in the range that shows them that you will be able to do their level of work.

By Marlgirl (Marlgirl) on Saturday, October 02, 2004 - 09:23 pm: Edit

Many famous writers would score poorly on that part of the test. If you've done well throughout english in high school, have a strong verbal SAT 1 score (like 750+ or so), and write really well written essays, the low subscore won't be a problem at all. It'd only be a problem if you had low english grades and a very poorly written essay. Unless every other piece of your application related to writing suggests that your writing is exceedingly poor, don't worry about it.