The chorus of complaints about the writing section of the SAT continues in today’s Boston Globe, which reports that hundreds of colleges and universities pay little attention to their applicants’ writing scores.

Many elite institutions, including Georgetown University, MIT, and Smith College, completely ignore the score students earn on the essay portion of the SAT. Data from the College Board, which administers the test, show that 56 percent of about 1,000 four-year institutions do not consider the writing score in their admissions criteria. Despite that finding, the College Board also said that an overwhelming majority of the 61 most selective colleges in the country use the writing score to some extent.

In admissions circles, critics of the 25-minute essay test, which was added to the SAT in March 2005, say that the test is too formulaic and does not gauge a student’s actual ability to write a college-level research paper. —Elizabeth F. Farrell