The SAT Essay is one section that has gone through a 360 degree change in the new SAT. It is no longer mandatory. It is an optional section. The time allotted is 50 minutes instead of the earlier 25 minutes. The topic of the SAT essay is no longer bound to your personal take on some philosophical matter. It is now guided by your abilities to analyze and synthesize. The most important of all changes is that not all colleges consider the SAT essay anymore. But, there are some who take it pretty seriously.Does the SAT essay matter? If yes, how much? If not, why not? These are some of the important aspects of this change in pattern in the SAT. Even the Ivies stand divided on this aspect. Some are in favor of students taking the SAT essay while the others do not bother about it. Harvard, Princeton, Dartmouth and Yale are in favor of the SAT essay as a process of evaluating potential students. Columbia, Cornell, UPenn and Brown are not factoring in the SAT essay to gauge their students. This is the perfect 50-50 situation you can ever find yourself in!College Board, the mother of it all, holds a neutral perspective on the SAT essay. It neither recommends it nor downplays it. All the College Board has done is to provide clear guidelines on the SAT essay . It further gives a list of colleges that take the SAT essay seriously.The SAT guidelines provided by the College Board throw light on three critical aspects of the SAT essay – reading, analysis and writing. These are the aspects that you are tested upon in the SAT essay. These three factors according to me are mighty important if you are going for college education. I mean, leave the test aside, a lot of the success of your college life hangs on your ability to read, analyze and write. Honestly, there is no two ways to go about it.Left to me, I’d say, you should go for the SAT essay. Reason, the run up to your SAT will help strengthen your ability to read, analyze and write. These will further aid your college performance. But, this is my personal opinion and I am no dictator to tell you what you should do or not do. I am your friend at Fabmarks to gently guide you get the best out of your SAT test.Let’s look at the SAT essay from the point of view of colleges that are for and against it. Let us start with the ones that are in the favor of students taking the SAT essay. Their rationale revolves around these points:-Many colleges consider college work to be similar to that of SAT essays. College work requires exercising the same skills of reading, analyzing and writing. The SAT essay score helps the college understand the eligibility of the student and fitment into their college.The SAT essay is the only section that allows a peak into the way a student thinks. There are studies that help really understand the personality of a person through the way he/she writes. Colleges which take SAT essay scores seriously might not really conduct a detailed analysis of a student based on his/her writing but they believe, the SAT essay score helps them understand the students in a holistic way.Yale was one of the Ivies that spoke out at length regarding their choice of including SAT essay in their evaluation. This particular news item from Yale details out their viewpoint. The general consensus is that writing as a form of communication is an important element for college life and life after that in general.These are the points of view of colleges in favor of SAT essay. Let us now look at colleges that are not really gung ho about the SAT essay. The following are their reasons to not really look at the SAT essay.Many colleges consider ACT for their admissions too. Eliminating the SAT essay brings in an element of consistency in evaluating applicants on the same set of parameters. This makes it easier for colleges to identify potential candidates.Many colleges require application essays as part of the college application process. For these colleges, the SAT essay does not really cover any different aspects of an applicant’s ability to read, analyze and write.The SAT essay does entail an additional expense on behalf of the student. Many colleges do not want to burden applicants with this additional expense.These are reasons for colleges to not consider the SAT essay.Should you take the SAT essay? One way to look at it is to decide based on the list of colleges you are aspiring to attend. If a majority of them want the SAT essay, then go for it. If you are taking the SAT essay, then opting in for the online SAT classes from Fabmarks is part of your definite scoring strategy. Customized help in the form of private tutoring and instant help through channels like Whatsapp make Fabmarks your secret weapon in scoring high on the SAT, essay or not!