<p>My dad and I have a arguments over this…he has a theory that UMD looks at writing scores when applicants are on the brink of decisions (inc. honors college) and merit scholarships…is this even practically possible, aside from legal?</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>I don’t know why it wouldn’t be possible. Legal? Why not?</p>
<p>But there’s a reason why Maryland doesn’t look at the writing score. They don’t believe that it correlates with success at Maryland. They’ve run the numbers and they think that whether or not you have a high writing score, it isn’t predictive of your success at their school.</p>
<p>There are other schools that think this way. For these schools, it doesn’t make much sense to look at the writing score. It’s like using earlobe length as a tie-breaker. It’s easy enough to do, but what’s that got to do with anything?</p>
<p>And schools that disagree. Harvard, for instance, considers the writing score to be one of the better indicators of success at Harvard among the standardized testing scores available to them.</p>
<p>Notjoe,</p>
<p>Out of curiosity, why the discrepancy there? If the writing section predicts success at Harvard should it not also predict success at Maryland, or any other school that does not utilize the writing section when evaluating an applicant?</p>
<p>Why not use all predictors available?</p>
<p>seekere, they are much more likely to look at the strength of your high school grades (did you take the “difficult” APs if they were offered?), whether your grades trended up or down, your ECs, and your letters of recommendation.</p>
<p>TerpGuy,</p>
<p>“Why not use all predictors available?”</p>
<p>Because they’re not predictors at some schools, like Maryland. In looking at the writing scores of their students and their performance at Maryland, the school has discovered that high writing scores don’t predict success at Maryland and low writing scores don’t predict failure.</p>
<p>“Out of curiosity, why the discrepancy there?”</p>
<p>I’d only be speculating. However, it’s entirely believable to me that the writing section might be relevant at one place and not at another. Each school is looking for students that match the school’s goals and mission. Different talents and skills may be relevant at each school. I know that Hopkins has also done their own research and found little correlation between the writing score and success at Hopkins.</p>
<p>Generally, I wouldn’t be surprised to find schools with a heavy liberal arts emphasis might find the writing section more correlative than schools with a heavier science, engineering and technology emphasis.</p>
<p>Another possible difference is in the nature of the writing test, itself. It’s generally acknowledged by most folks involved in intelligence testing that the verbal and math sections of the SAT are pretty much a form of a modified IQ test. Students who do well on the SAT, especially at the level of the median Maryland student, have the underlying ability to write sufficiently well to achieve great things in college.</p>
<p>I’m speculating some, but my guess is that the writing test is a little less about fundamental ability and more about actual achievement. In other words, it doesn’t measure potential but rather how much potential has so far been actualized.</p>
<p>Many schools, even selective schools, are set up to work with students who have the potential to write well but may not have yet realized that potential. The writing score may not correlate well with having an as-yet undeveloped potential.</p>
<p>Conversely, folks who go to Harvard need to arrive with a high degree of already-developed writing skill. It’s tough to survive without it.</p>
<p>There are likely other more subtle correlations that I’m missing entirely. It may be that neither Harvard or Maryland completely understand what it is for which each institution is looking in a prospective student that either correlates or fails to correlate with the SAT Writing score.</p>
<p>my school doesn’t have AP’s…were a private schools that makes our own cirriculum…most of our classes are in fact harder than the AP cirriculum, and my school grades differently than more schools, i.e nobody has a 4.0 or a gpa too high…so my sat scores are the great equalizer…im hoping if i have a 3.6 gpa and a 2250, colleges will understand that</p>