Are you applying to college and wondering if the SAT® and ACT® essay sections are really optional at top schools? In this blog we talk about the recent changes to SAT/ACT essay policies from many top schools and whether you should be taking these exams with or without the essay portion.
In 2018, most top schools started dropping the requirement that you must take the SAT®/ACT® with an essay. Many high schools are giving the SAT®/ACT® to the whole school for free, without the essay portion. College have reasoned that students would then have to spend money out of pocket just to retake for the sake of the essay portion, and thus some students would be discouraged from applying to these top universities. Many universities have removed that stipulation in hopes of being more equitable to students regardless of income.
However, many of the schools that have announced that the essay portion is not required to apply still use the essay as a piece of the admissions portfolio. Below is a look at the top 25 or so ranked universities and their individually published policies as of July 2019.
*Disclaimer Always DOUBLE CHECK each school’s individual policies on the ACT®/SAT® essay. Everything here is subject to change.*
The following list shows some top-10 schools that have basically said they don’t care about your essay score. So take a sigh of relief and don’t worry at all.
| School | Not Using Essay | No College Policy | Essay Recommended | Essay Optional | Essay Required | Used for Admission | Used for Placement | Used for Advising | In Place of Application Essay | Validity Check of Application Essay |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cornell University | X | |||||||||
| Carnegie Mellon | X | |||||||||
| NYU | X | |||||||||
| Rice University | X | |||||||||
| University of Michigan | X | |||||||||
| University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | X | |||||||||
| Notre Dame | X | |||||||||
| University of Southern California | X | |||||||||
| Stanford University | X | |||||||||
| Cal Tech | X | |||||||||
| MIT | X |
The following schools do accept essay scores but are not clear on how they used them. The thing to note is that instead of flat out saying they do not use them, they do accept them so they must be using them in one way or another.
| School | Not Using Essay | No College Policy | Essay Recommended | Essay Optional | Essay Required | Used for Admission | Used for Placement | Used for Advising | In Place of Application Essay | Validity Check of Application Essay |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northwestern University | X | |||||||||
| Tufts University | X | X | ||||||||
| Emory University | X | |||||||||
| Vanderbilt University | X | X | ||||||||
| University of Chicago | X | |||||||||
| Columbia University | X | |||||||||
| Washington University | X | |||||||||
| Johns Hopkins University | X |
Here are schools where the essay score is still actually going to matter. You’re compared typically to people in the same socioeconomic background as you are, so if you’re in a group typically taking the essay, it might benefit you to do so, too.
| School | Not Using Essay | No College Policy | Essay Recommended | Essay Optional | Essay Required | Used for Admission | Used for Placement | Used for Advising | In Place of Application Essay | Validity Check of Application Essay |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harvard University | X | X | X | X | ||||||
| Amherst College | X | |||||||||
| Brown University | X | X | ||||||||
| Yale University (Should self report if completed) | X | X | ||||||||
| Princeton University | X | X | X | X | ||||||
| University of Pennsylvania | X | X | X | |||||||
| Dartmouth College | X | X | X | X | ||||||
| Duke University | X | X | X | X | X |
Note: The entire UC (University of California) system requires you to take the SAT®/ACT® essay. Also, if you are an international student make sure you check out the international student policies for each school.
