Importance of SAT writing for admission?

Colleges & Universities The University of Texas at Austin
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<p>I’m about 9.3% in my class so I’m not automatically accepted and I’m applying to Petroleum Engineering and Geosciences. My SAT scores for reading and math combined are 1320, but my writing score was low (1540)</p>

<p>So my question is how much does UT care about writing scores when admitting people to Engineering and Geosciences? I saw a statistic sheet put out by Cockrell that gives their students SAT score and it did not include the writing score.</p>

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<p>*Meant to put 540 as my writing score not 1540</p>

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<p>Anything? Stressin out</p>

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<p>Some background: The holistic review a prospective student’s file goes through is divided into two parts: an Academic Index (AI) which calculates a freshman gpa based on your high school rank and SAT/ACT scores; the second part is a Personal Achievement Index (PAI) where an admissions officer scores your essays, your extracurricular activities, and recommendation letters. The AI and PAI are then placed on a grid, and those students placing in a certain portion are offered admittance.</p>

<p>To your question, according to the pdf file below, it appears that engineering utilizes the SAT writing and math portions, but not the reading portion in calculating the AI. Go to page nineteen of the document and you will see the regression formulas for engineering. </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.utexas.edu/student/admissions/research/HB588-Report13.pdf[/url]”>http://www.utexas.edu/student/admissions/research/HB588-Report13.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Thanks a lot that was really helpful. Do you think the natural science formula is used for geosciences? I couldn’t find a geoscience one on there. Also is there anywhere that says what type of scores from the formula are good?</p>

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<p>I would presume Geoscience uses the Natural Science regression formula. As for any published numbers, there aren’t any. However, on page 5 there is a grid which shows how they plot the AI and PAI indexes. The higher to the upper left you are on the grid, i.e. the higher your AI and PAI scores, the greater your chance for acceptance.</p>

<p>On pages 14 and 15 there are stats for freshmen admitted in 2010 by SAT/ACT scores and by major, so that may give you some idea.</p>

<p>Good luck :).</p>

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<p>Alright cool thanks for all the help</p>