Chances for an international with unfortunate SATs?

Momwaitingfornew
Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:53:37 +0000

Do the SAT score reports still break down the writing multiple choice and the essay? If so, what was your writing score versus your essay? As for the “scanning error,” you would have to find out if the scorers get the same scan that you did. You might want to talk to someone at the CB to see what can be done if they don’t re-read essays. I’m afraid that they would simply re-score the multiple choice part.

That said, plenty of Smithies arrive with lop-sided abilities and scores. Smith isn’t going to turn away the next Sylvia Plath or Gloria Steinem just because she is lousy at math. When they look at your application, they will weigh your strengths and weaknesses and then determine whether you would be a good addition to the next class of Smithies.

Just so you know: Smith is not a great place to study creative writing, although a writer can certainly take enough courses to satisfy her creative side. Without a program, Smith doesn’t have many top profs teaching courses, although it has had some good writers come in as visiting professors. My D almost discounted Smith because she wanted to minor in creative writing, but, fortunately for her, she eventually decided she didn’t need a formal program to write. She is now a science major who has taken several creative writing courses, all of them good but none of them consistent within genre. You would have to employ the Five College Consortium to specialize in, say, poetry. UMass/Amherst has a good graduate program in creative writing, and that trickles down to the undergraduate level.