<p>DD kept saying: “I hate the writting part” until her ACT scores report shows up today. </p>
<p>How important is this optional part? Any particular school looks at it?</p>
<p>laserbrother: My daughter had a 10 on the writing the first time (when she got a cumulative 31), 8 the next (when she got a 34.) She doesn’t know why. I don’t know why. I doubt that anyone knows why. I also doubt that the schools take it too seriously, for that reason.</p>
<p>So it is just a section of “nice to have but does not mean much”? DD got a 12 on it and she is like totally surprise. The comment she got on the report card was very nice. Suddenly she wants to be an art major now instead of taking on science.</p>
<p>How impt it is depends on the school and what they are using it for. For admissions I doubt it means much. At our state u they use it to help determine admissions for their Honors College and also to help rank the people who otherwise qualify for their top scholarship. The state u used to have you write an essay for both Honors College and the scholarship (in addition to the Composite and GPA), but now they just use the ACT writing score instead of the essay. I suppose it saves them thinking up a prompt and also reading and evaluating an essay.</p>
<p>I would ask the schools you’re interested in directly how they use the score.</p>
<p>For the UC’s (university of california), you HAVE to take the writing part – so for UC system, it’s VERY important!</p>
<p>Thank U beatchick. She is also thinking about UC berkeley. This is great!!!</p>
<p>I did a research last nigh on ACT’s web site. It turns out, all the schools DD wants to apply REQUIRES ACT writing, excpet WashU at St. Louis. Even the State U requires it. It is a good thing that she got a 12. </p>
<p>The only “bad thing” from getting a set of ACT and SAT II scores is that DD is shifting her eyes way up on the ranking list. I saw she actually spent a whole night making a list of schools with their requirement and cost. Other than our safeties, she is picking no lower than 15th.</p>
<p>fwiw - our state u also requires the ACT plus for your admissions application, but as far as I know they don’t use the essay score for the admissions decision itself. They use the essay score for the Honors College and the top scholarship (not for the lower tier scholarships). They may also use the essay score, combined with the English subscore for placement purposes (like to see if you can skip freshman english rqt).</p>
<p>You may have to research the schools on your list specifically to see what they are actually using that essay score for. Even tho’ they require the ACT Plus, the actual admissions decision may still rest on the Composite, which does NOT include the essay score.</p>
<p>That said, I did find myself sweating out S’s essay score. He had the minimum composite for honors college consideration, a really good gpa, and as of yesterday’s mail, an 11 on the essay. So it looks like we have a solid set of scores to send in at our house!</p>
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<p>cal is ~#20 IIRC</p>
<p>Berkeley is “in consideration” but not on her short list. I am going to have a conversation with her about managing expectations. Based on what I have read on CC, there will be many equally or better qualified kids fail to get any “yes” from these top schools. </p>
<p>Besides, her stat is only at 75% at best for these top schools.</p>
<p>^^especially this year.</p>