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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 for admission to Rice? Should I retake? Or am I worried about nothing?
BTW: my GPA, other standardized test scores, and EC's are all very good

By Jwtullis (Jwtullis) on Tuesday, September 14, 2004 - 09:51 pm: Edit

I'm at Rice now, and I had a somewhat similar situation. My SAT II Writing was a 770, but I had a 61 on the essay, even though I consider myself a good writer. I just did my best on the application essay, which I think showed my actual talent. I say that to say: don't worry about it at this point. That score certainly won't hinder you and it's relatively easy (if indeed you actually are a good writer) to show your skill in writing, since you have multiple opportunities on the application to do so. If you want to take tests again, focus on the SAT I or another SAT II. Hope this helps.

By Grad05 (Grad05) on Tuesday, September 14, 2004 - 11:01 pm: Edit

Thanks Jwtullis that really helped. I guess I'll stop worrying about it then.

By Bmy (Bmy) on Wednesday, September 15, 2004 - 11:46 am: Edit

I agree. My son is at Rice and also had some concerns about his SATII Writing score. Show your ability in your application essay. Remember, your teacher recommendations should address your writing, too, and their comments reflect on a larger body of work versus what you did on one single day. Ask politely if they could specifically talk about the strength of your writing ability, if you are comfortable making that request. Good luck!

By Kjofkw (Kjofkw) on Wednesday, September 15, 2004 - 02:20 pm: Edit

Grad 05: My son had slightly lower scores than yours on the SAT II Writing. The rest of his SAT's & (ACT) were a lot higher however. He decided not to retake the SAT II Writing. He had enough testing!

He was admitted to Rice, and w/ a scholarship, but chose to attend elsewhere.

By Grad05 (Grad05) on Wednesday, September 15, 2004 - 09:10 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. Also, do you guys think that the low essay score will hurt my chances at the Rice/Baylor med program(cuz I'm applying for that as well)? Any other opinions and feedback would be appreciated.
Thanks again

By Wobudong (Wobudong) on Wednesday, September 15, 2004 - 10:00 pm: Edit

The SAT 2 essay score is based on a formula designed for mass grading that rewards competent writing but frequently punishes outstanding writing. I have known students who scored much higher when they repeated SAT 2 writing and "dumbed down" the essay. The adcom people at the top schools also are well aware that the essay portion may be influenced by the limitations of the test and the competence of the graders, and as others have pointed out, if you score over 700 they are likely to give much greater weight to their own assessments of your writing ability based on the application essays. As tests go, the AP Lit and Composition test is probably a much better measure of writing ability, but you have to take it by May of 11th grade to count for admissions.