<p>hehe299792458:</p>
<p>Your question IS an informed one. I’m not sure many of the posters here understand where you’re coming from. Northwestern, for the first few years of the writing section, made it clear that although required it would NOT be used in admissions decisions. They felt that the test, so new on the scene, had not yet demonstrated any reasonable correlation with undergrad performance. </p>
<p>While I suspect the section’s credibility has increased with NU’s admission’s committee, it’s still probably a somewhat weaker CR and math sibling. While I’m sure writing scores are looked at, a low score will unlikely deter an otherwise positive decision yet a particularly high score may help boost chances. The only way to know if this year is truly different is to ask the admissions people.</p>