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The SAT Writing Section (Essay): Here’s What You Need to Know

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The SAT recently revamped itself to more accurately test what students learn in school. The new version is less deliberately tricky and confusing, but it’s still a challenging, exhausting test. Let’s say you’ve taken both the ACT and the SAT and you perform better on the SAT. Now that you’ve chosen it as your go-to test, how do you get through the essay portion, especially if you hate writing?

Fun fact: the SAT has plenty of new practice tests , which include essays. For the purposes of this post, I’ll be working from this practice essay , so it might be useful to have it open as you read. We’ll go through what’s expected, what scoring looks like, and how to go about writing the best essay you can.

Understand What You’re Being Asked to Do

The new SAT no longer asks you to make up ideas and references from scratch (which, honestly, is probably for the best). Instead, it provides you with an essay and asks you to analyze it, much in the same vein as an in-class analytical or an AP English Language essay.

The Assignment

The assignment reads as follows. At the top you’ll see a generic introduction for what to look for as you read:

As you read the passage below, consider how (the author of the passage) uses:

• evidence, such as facts or examples, to support claims.
• reasoning to develop ideas and to connect claims and evidence.
• stylistic or persuasive elements, such as word choice or appeals to emotion, to add power to the ideas expressed.

Then, at the bottom, the instructions get specific. For this essay, they read like this:

Write an essay in which you explain how Bobby Braun builds an argument to persuade his audience that the US government must continue to invest in NASA. In your essay, analyze how Braun uses one or more of the features listed in the box above (or features of your own choice) to strengthen the logic and persuasiveness of his argument. Be sure that your analysis focuses on the most relevant features of the passage. Your essay should not explain whether you agree with Braun’s claims, but rather explain how Braun builds an argument to persuade his audience.

What does this mean? Essentially, as you read, pick out the techniques the author uses to make his or her point, then write a detailed essay that covers a couple of the main ones. Brush up on your knowledge of literary terms and devices well in advance of writing the SAT essay. You don’t have to know them all, but know the most commonly used ones really well (tone, diction, imagery, simile/metaphor, allusion, rhetorical question, anecdote, and symbolism, to name a few) so you can rely on those. In an argumentative essay, like this one, an author will always use tone, diction (choice of words), and some kind of persuasion technique (Logos? Pathos? Ethos? Anecdote? etc.).

How is the essay scored? Two testers will read your essay and will provide a score of 1-4 on three different benchmarks: reading, analysis, and writing.

Did the writer understand the content? Did they quickly summarize the argument/point and then move quickly into their interpretation of it? Did they paraphrase and directly quote?

Did the writer not only identify the right literary terms/devices but assess their uses effectively? In other words, did the writer understand why the author used those devices and say so? Did the analysis integrate into the rest of the essay?

Is there a strong thesis, body paragraphs for each device, and a quick conclusion? (More on organization below.) Is the writing “strong,” i.e., sentence variety, no unnecessary words or repetition, strong words, and sophisticated reasoning?

The testers’ scores are then added together for an aggregate final score. So, a top score would be 8/8/8.

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Final Thoughts

Unless you’re being given extra time, you have exactly 50 minutes to complete the essay. This sounds like a lot (and it’s more than it used to be), but don’t be fooled. You’ll use the time.

Students with special accommodations might be able to take the test on a computer, but otherwise it’s a written test. Your test booklet will be scanned into a computer. If you make a mistake, don’t erase your work, because it causes smudges and can make it hard for the tester to read. Simply cross out and rewrite. The testers are trained not to read crossed-out material. If you’ve been told your handwriting is impossible to read, write a little more slowly than you might otherwise. Choose the style that’s more legible for you: print or cursive. When you write practice tests, give it to someone and ask if they can read it.

You’ll take the SAT essay last, after every other section has been completed. So you’ll be exhausted. There’s no way around that, unfortunately, beyond bringing snacks and water on test day and walking around during breaks to take the focus off your brain for a couple minutes. Practice is key; you’ll want to be able to read an essay quickly, pull out devices, and write a straightforward essay with a minimum of confusion and anxiety. Only practice and memorization of the right information will get you there.

As you prepare to take the SAT, take a look at some example essays that scored highly. It won’t be the same subject matter, but the structure and language will be aspects you can emulate.

Read with the Assignment in Mind

Imagine that your proctor has told you to turn to the essay section. You already know the basic assignment, so you can actually skip the top introduction and dive right in to the essay. Don’t get bogged down with unfamiliar words or the most complex sentences. You don’t need to absorb every single word of the essay. Read to find devices you can use. Circle them and ID them as you go. Don’t be picky right away—just observe and note what you see.

Go ahead and skim the bottom instructions, but even then the first sentence is the only really important one. In this case, the gist is: how does Braun persuade his audience to invest in NASA? Then, go back to the devices you found, and pick out the three strongest and/or most used devices to structure your essay. Can’t find three? Remember, an author always uses tone (point of view) and diction (word choice) so those are two easy ones if you’re stuck.

The process of reading and pulling out devices should take no more than eight minutes.

Make a Quick Outline

I know this one sound counterintuitive, given what I said about time limits, but bear with me. Just starting to write without a clear path is hugely problematic for timed essays. Even the best writers make a mental note of their general direction. Without planning, you might change directions mid-essay, forget your thesis and end up arguing something else, or wander off completely without realizing it.

The outline can be short and sweet. For example, with this practice essay, it could look like this:

Intro: Braun argues that continuing to invest in space tech and research keeps us competitive in the world economy. Devices: logos, imagery, allusion

Body 1: Logos (logic): paragraph 3, 5, 7

Body 2: Imagery: paragraph 4, 6

Body 3: Allusion: paragraph 8

Don’t even bother to include your conclusion in your outline. It’s pretty much the same content as your intro. Also, remember that you don’t need to tackle every aspect or device in the essay. Highlight where your devices are, then focus your analysis to those sections. In the outline above, I’ve structured the devices so that you’re going through the essay in almost chronological fashion. You don’t have to do this, but it makes the essay-writing a bit easier.

The process of outlining should take no more than two minutes.

Write Quickly but Methodically

Don’t waste a lot of breath with a big, drawn out introduction. State the argument of the author in one sentence, then your thesis, which should be a list of the three devices you plan to use. Keep it simple and easy, then move on.

For each body paragraph, make a quick topic sentence explaining which device you’re analyzing. Spend one sentence (ONLY one) summarizing how the author is using the device. Begin to use quotes or paraphrase; after each example, analyze why the author uses the device and the effect it has. About three quotes or examples are usually standard. Then, at the end of the paragraph, use one sentence to sum up the effect the device has on the whole essay. Use sample essays for examples of this structure.

See the numbers at the side of each paragraph? When you quote directly or summarize directly, put the number of the paragraph in parenthesis afterwards to cite where you’re getting the information from.

For your conclusion, simply restate what you’ve said before. If you’re feeling extra-confident, feel free to add a key takeaway from the analysis, but it’s not necessary. So, your conclusion can be two sentences just like your intro.

What if your writing style isn’t advanced or similar to the example essays? Work with a teacher or tutor who can help you develop your skills if you have the time. If not, just write simply and clearly. Don’t use overly technical words. Don’t make really long sentences just for the sake of doing so. Even simple, forceful language can be effective so long as your argument is good. So focus your attention on ensuring that you know what good analysis is and how to replicate it.

You’ll have 35 minutes to write. Keep an eye on the clock, but mostly just focus on writing quickly and clearly.

Leave a Few Minutes for Proofreading

Again, I know you’ll be flying through this essay at lightning speed to get everything done effectively. But this one’s important too. When you write quickly, grammar and spelling can fall by the wayside. That’s totally normal, so don’t freak out. But you will be graded on such aspects in your final score, so leave 5 minutes max at the end to skim through your essay, pinpoint where you made mistakes, cross out the word or phrase, and write the correct word or phrase above it. Try to make corrections clearly so that the tester knows which version to read.

And that’s it! Easy, right? (Totally kidding.) As with everything else, practice will help. If you’re not already doing this kind of essay in class, do a few practice essays at home. Make sure you do the EXACT process start to finish: time yourself, write an outline, and so on. Part of success is building the muscle memory to go into the essay with a solid base of experience and confidence that you’ll succeed.

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The SAT Essay: Should You Take It?

Should you take the sat essay in 2021.

NOTE: The SAT Essay no longer exists as of 2024. The SAT has transitioned into a new digital format, which is radically different. For an updated guide to the new digital SAT, follow the link here.

The SAT Essay is optional. Students do not have to sit for it. In fact, they must elect to take the Essay when registering for the SAT. This costs an additional $15 .

Plenty of U.S. universities and colleges do not require the SAT Essay, including Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, Dartmouth, and Brown. But in the context of college admissions, “optional” often takes on a whole new meaning. 

What’s more, the CollegeBoard will now be discontinuing the SAT Essay following the June 2021 SAT administration .

Should you take the SAT essay between now and 2021? Or should you pass on it and spend those 50 minutes elsewhere?

In this article, we answer these questions and more.

Here’s what we cover:

The SAT Essay: The Basics

• How We’ve Approached the Essay Until Now (2021)
• Should You Take the Essay Between Now and June 2021?

If they’ve registered for it, students take the SAT essay after they have completed the first 4 sections of the test. The Essay portion is 50 minutes long (as opposed to the old SAT’s 25-minute essay section) and is hand-written.

The Purpose of the SAT Essay

According to the College Board, the SAT essay is “about the real world.”

The SAT Essay is a lot like a typical college writing assignment in which you’re asked to analyze a text. Take the SAT with Essay and show colleges that you’re ready to come to campus and write.

Yes, students must write analytically after nearly three hours of testing, when their brains are significantly fatigued! Nonetheless, the SAT essay is designed to showcase a student’s writing capabilities in the context of college preparedness .

Source : College Board

Notice how students are not asked whether or not they agree with the author’s argument. Nor are they asked to assess its logical soundness.

They must simply identify the tools or “rhetorical devices” the author uses to make his/her argument persuasive.

Passages will be similar in length and style to those on the Evidence-Based Reading test of the SAT, although notably more argumentative in nature. Many essay passages are speeches or editorials. These can be from any century.

SAT Essay Scoring

Two separate readers will assess students’ essays and score these in three categories:

• and Writing

They will award 1-4 points for each category. The SAT test graders then add the two scores for each category. Here’s an example:

A student’s SAT essay scores do not impact their SAT composite score or Verbal section score. Essay scores appear separately on the score report itself. These do not include a composite score or percentiles.

Our Historic Approach to the SAT Essay (pre-2021)

Before the CollegeBoard announced that it would be discontinuing the SAT Essay in June 2021, these were our thoughts on this optional section of the test.

First things first, plenty of institutions have dropped their requirement of the SAT or ACT essays due to the financial obstacle it may pose to some students. As we’ve already mentioned, the SAT essay requires $15 on top of the exam’s registration fee of $49.50. ( Fee waivers do exist.)

Yet some colleges have sometimes filled the SAT essay gap with something else, such as supplemental writing materials .  Despite not requiring it, a dwindling number of institutions have “recommended” that students take the essay if they have the means to do so.

College Application Requirements 

In the past, the CollegeBoard has been quick to emphasize that taking the SAT Essay enables students to apply to schools that “recommend or require it.” 

Indeed, some of the colleges on students’ lists may have different policies and/or requirements when it comes to the SAT Essay. 

If you do use this tool, be sure to confirm essay policies with what colleges specify on their websites.  

Essay Alternatives

Some colleges have requested an alternative to the SAT essay in past admission cycles.

While Princeton University has not historically required the SAT or ACT essay, it does request a graded academic writing sample from all applicants. This is designed to “ assess the student’s written expression in an academic setting” and “further the holistic understanding of the student’s application.”

Other universities, such as Harvard , permit applicants to supplement their applications with academic papers, research projects, and other scholarly documents of which they are the sole author. 

In other words, colleges are keen to assess students’ writing capacities, SAT/ACT essay aside.

SAT Test Prep

The essay does incorporate much of what both SAT verbal sections already test: expression of ideas, logical organization, critical analysis of a text, and author’s intent.

Students who prepare for both SAT verbal sections will thus already be poised for success on the essay!  In this sense, studying for the SAT essay nicely complements any SAT test prep timeline and curriculum. 

AP English students may also be at an advantage for the SAT essay. The prompt’s focus on argument and rhetorical devices frequently aligns with AP English curriculum, making essay prep more straightforward. 

Taking the SAT Essay in 2021

The CollegeBoard will no longer offer the SAT Essay after the June administration of the SAT.

In the past, we’ve encouraged students to take the Essay to keep their options open, especially those applying to more selective colleges. We haven’t advised  spending too much time preparing for the Essay, however.

Now what? S hould you even consider signing up for the SAT Essay since it’s going away in six months?

In general, plan on taking the SAT Essay if:

• You have already significantly prepared for the essay at this point in your SAT test prep
• You’ve taken the SAT essay once and plan on taking the SAT at least one more time before or on June 2021
• You plan on taking the SAT at least twice by June 2021  (this allows for SuperScoring with Essay)
• You desperately wish to showcase your writing skills and/or
• You have substantial extra prep time (i.e., preparing for the Essay won’t compromise your prep for other more valuable sections)

We recommend that you skip the essay if:

• You are just starting your test prep journey now
• You plan on taking the SAT after the June administration, at least one time
• At least one college on your list requires an essay alternative (such as an academic paper)
• You’ve already taken the essay at least twice and/or
• Your time is better spent preparing for the required sections of the SAT (Math, Reading, Writing & Language)

At the end of the day, colleges are likely to still be interested in applicants’ ability to write well and think critically.

That’s why we encourage students to spend time honing their personal statements , in-class academic papers, and supplemental essay responses , regardless of their history with the SAT Essay.

Kate is a graduate of Princeton University. Over the last decade, Kate has successfully mentored hundreds of students in all aspects of the college admissions process, including the SAT, ACT, and college application essay.

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What are the benefits of the SAT?

The primary benefit of taking the SAT is that it gives colleges a standardized measure of your academic abilities. With those scores, most colleges and universities can compare students from different schools and backgrounds on a level field. While the SAT isn’t the only factor that colleges consider in the admissions process, it’s a valuable tool that can demonstrate your academic abilities and improve your chances of being admitted to your desired college or university. It’s a more objective measure than extracurricular activities, teacher recommendations, or college application essays.

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Does the SAT Essay Matter? – Don’t Stress it Too Much

Updated: October 19, 2023

Published: January 29, 2020

If you’re applying to college in the U.S., you will most likely need to take the SAT or ACT exam. This is because most colleges require the SAT or ACT as part of the application. The SAT, or Scholastic Aptitude Test, is administered by the College Board. It consists of four sections and an optional essay. The four sections cover: Reading, Writing and Language, Math (no calculator), and Math (calculator). Since the essay is listed as optional, you may be asking yourself, does the SAT essay matter?

That’s a really good question with an interesting and somewhat variable answer. We will look at everything you need to know about the SAT scoring overall, and provide more insight into the essay. After reading this, you should be able to make an informed decision for whether or not you should take the SAT essay or skip it.

Photo by  Ben Mullins  on  Unsplash

Sat subject scoring.

Before jumping into the essay specifically, let’s break down how the SAT is scored. Upon completion of the test, you can receive a score between 400 and 1600. Each topic is given a raw score. This is the number of questions that you answered correctly.

Then, the College Board performs a process called “equating” based on data. That gives you a score between 200 and 800 for the two general sections, Evidence-Based Reading and Writing and Math. The College Board doesn’t provide much insight into how “equating” works.

SAT Essay Scoring

The SAT essay used to be required, whereas the ACT essay has always been optional. Recently, the College Board made the SAT essay optional, too.

Students are provided with 50 minutes to write an essay.

The new SAT essay asks students to analyze how the author built his or her argument.

Grading for the essay requires two readers who grant it a score between 2 and 8. Then, your final score is the average of their two grades.

The essay’s score is provided separately to your overall SAT score when it is sent to colleges.

Does The SAT Essay Matter?

Now, you may be asking yourself, “Should I skip the SAT essay entirely?”

The fact of the matter is that only about 10% of colleges still require it. But, keep in mind, this could change. It’s best practice to check with your school of choice directly before taking the SAT to see if they require it or not.

A good way to find out if your school requires the SAT essay is to google: “[school name] SAT requirement.” If the school you want to attend requires it, then it’s a no brainer — you must complete the essay.

Some people will suggest you take the essay anyways, in case you decide later to apply to a school that requires it. Also, it’s worthwhile to keep in mind that you cannot take just the essay portion separately. If you decide later that you will need it, you will have to take the whole exam again. That means you will have to pay again and dedicate three to four more hours of your time to complete the exam.

Pros of Taking the SAT Essay

There may be benefits of completing the essay portion of the SAT exam. If you decide to complete the essay, you will have:

1. Ensured that you can apply to any school

2. Potentially increased your application (even if schools may not require it, they may use the score as an indication of how well you can write)

Cons of Taking the SAT Essay

If you know for a fact that you won’t need the SAT essay, it may be worth skipping it. This is because:

1. It costs an additional $14 extra

2. It adds about an hour to the test which is already three hours

3. It will require more studying and exam preparation

Photo by  Kyle Gregory Devaras  on  Unsplash

How to prepare for the sat essay.

If you decide to take the SAT essay, then you should come prepared. The SAT essay presents you with a passage that is between 650 and 750 words. You’ll have to read, digest, and interpret the passage. Then you will be asked to analyze and explain how the author made his or her argument.

To prepare, you can consider performing the following:

1. Study sample passages and prompts

2. Conduct practices by writing responses and timing yourself for 50 minutes

3. Read op-ed pieces from published outlets to see how others write and structure arguments

4. Ask different people you trust to read and grade your practice essays

On the test day, be sure to do the following:

1. Read the prompt carefully

2. Allocate time to read the excerpt

3. Outline your response

4. Write clearly, concisely, and with as few errors as possible

5. Leave time for editing

Not All Colleges Require the SAT

While you may be considering whether or not to take the SAT essay section, you should know that some colleges don’t require the SAT at all. This is particularly true of many online universities .

At the University of the People, there are few requirements to enroll . The main two must-haves include: English proficiency and proof of high school completion.

There has been much debate about how hard and unequal the playing field is to be accepted into American universities. This is even true of the SAT and ACT as it is less of a test of intelligence and more of a test-taking skills test.

So, for some who can afford private tutoring and SAT courses, they may have an advantage over students who study alone.

As such, the University of the People believes in offering quality, tuition-free higher education to students from all around the world. It doesn’t matter how well you do or don’t do on standardized tests.

Instead, the utmost importance is that you have a will to learn.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is that taking the SAT essay portion is a subjective decision. While it is optional, there are some schools that still require it (taking away its status as being optional).

If you are dead set on attending a certain school that does not require the essay portion, then you can save money and time by not taking it.

However, if you are unsure of where you may end up applying, it could be in your best interest to complete the essay. Before you sign up for the SAT, perform your research and be sure of your decision.

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SAT Essay Benefits You Should Consider

The SAT Essay is now optional for students to take. As a result, plenty of kids skip it altogether. However, there are some solid SAT Essay benefits to consider before choosing to skip it.

Here are a few SAT Essay benefits to be aware of before choosing to skip it or not.

Learn how to prepare for standardized tests with our year-round SAT prep and ACT prep courses today.

You’re Covered For Every School

You can apply to every school out there without worry.

Going ahead and taking the SAT Essay means that, no matter which schools you apply to, you will have fulfilled their SAT requirements. If you apply to schools that require the Essay is completed, then you’re covered.

If you’re applying to schools that don’t require the Essay, then don’t worry. Moreover, it will show them your initiative, which we’ll discuss later. If you’re still putting together your list of dream schools, then doing the Essay gives you insurance that brings peace of mind with it.

A Good Score Will Help Boost Your Application

Doing the Essay can help distinguish you from the competition.

If you’re applying to a competitive school that doesn’t require the Essay, then doing it and submitting that score can beneficial to your application. The admissions board will see that you took the initiative and didn’t skip that section, even though doing poorly on it could hurt your final score.

If you’re looking to showcase strong English or writing skills, then the Essay presents that opportunity. You also demonstrate that you’re ready for higher-level challenges. However, don’t pin all of your hopes on the Essay if you score poorly elsewhere on the SAT.

Prepares You For College-Level Writing

Get ready for college work early with the Essay.

A lesson we teach students at Prep Expert is that the SAT (or ACT) Essay is great practice for higher-level writing. Once admitted, you will do a ton of writing in college.

Examples include:

• Term papers
• Essay assignments
• Exam essay questions
• Project presentations

Your professors will demand written work on par with your level of education. As such, anything that is written that lacks coherent arguments, clear evidence, or competent grammar/spelling will be poorly graded. Use the Essay section to practice skills that you’ll use a lot in college itself.

The Format Is Easy To Understand

The biggest step is understanding the prompt then analyzing it.

The SAT Essay is a straightforward assignment. You are presented with a short passage that has the following characteristics:

• It presents an argument
• Supports said argument with evidence and logic
• Written for a broad audience

All you need to do is analyze the argument itself and discuss what devices the author uses to present his or her point to said audience.

There’s no need to formulate your own opinion or argument. As long as you can decipher the prompt’s argument and illustrate how it is made persuasive, the essay practically writes itself.

[sat_three]

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SAT Essay Benefits FAQ

What’s the least understood benefit of doing the sat essay.

Going ahead and taking the SAT Essay means that no matter which schools you apply to, you will have fulfilled their SAT requirements. If you apply to schools that require the Essay is completed, then you’re covered. If you’re applying to schools that don’t require the Essay, then don’t worry. Moreover, it will show them your initiative.

What’s a direct benefit the SAT Essay has for me in college?

What kinds of college assignments will the sat essay prepare me for.

Common examples include: Term papers, Essay assignments, Exam essay questions, and Project presentations.

What’s the key to understanding the SAT Essay section?

All you need to do is analyze the argument itself and discuss what devices the author uses to present his or her point to said audience. There’s no need to formulate your own opinion or argument. As long as you can decipher the prompt’s argument and illustrate how it is made persuasive, the essay practically writes itself.

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Why SAT, ACT Matter Beyond College Admissions

Standardized tests like the ACT and SAT are more than an admissions formality – they can also lead to scholarships.

SAT, ACT: Value Beyond College Admission

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Students can earn college credit with just a standardized test score.

The novel coronavirus pandemic has prompted notable changes to standardized testing for college admissions. This year, hundreds of colleges made the submission of exam scores optional, whereas others have decided to phase out the ACT or SAT testing requirement altogether within the next few years.

How to Train Your Brain for ACT, SAT

Tiffany Sorensen Nov. 23, 2020

In 2021, SAT and ACT exam centers may extend fewer test dates, which could mean a more competitive registration process. Furthermore, the ACT is planning to offer a remote testing option.

Despite these changes, standardized college admissions exams still hold certain benefits. Some are obvious, such as helping applicants gain entrance to a college or university. Others, such as these four advantages, may be less evident to students:

• Qualification for scholarships.
• College credit.
• Preparation for college-level courses and exams.
• Endurance training.

Qualification for Scholarships

One of the best-known score-dependent scholarships is the National Merit Scholarship Program. This $2,500 scholarship is awarded to high school students based on their PSAT/NMSQT score.

However, that is not the only scholarship students can win on the basis of a standardized exam result. Certain colleges and universities offer financial assistance for competitive ACT or SAT scores. For instance, the University of Missouri's Mizzou Scholars Award – a renewable scholarship of $10,000 per year – requires a minimum ACT score of 33 or a minimum SAT score of 1450, among other criteria.

Speak with your schools to determine what scholarships might be available based on your standardized test scores. You can also search for awards by ACT and SAT score on Scholarships.com. Conducting thorough research and completing an appropriate study plan for any standardized exams you take can ultimately lessen the financial burden of college.

College Credit

In addition to popular academic course options like Advanced Placement , International Baccalaureate and dual enrollment – in which a student enrolls in college courses and earns college credit while still in high school – it is also possible to earn college credits with a standardized test score.

The College-Level Examination Program, or CLEP, is one example. CLEP offers a way for students who have gained relevant skills outside the classroom to objectively verify their knowledge. A student who has completed an internship in the business sector, for instance, may find it worthwhile to sit for the Principles of Marketing exam and get college credit based on his or her score.

Students who are interested in this path may also want to consider UExcel exams, which similarly allow you to earn credit without completing a course first. Exam options range widely, from Introduction to Music to Workplace Communication With Computers, so speak with your prospective colleges to see if they accept this credential.

Preparation for College-Level Courses and Exams

Students will take exams throughout their college careers. While the nature of these tests may change at the university level, the content on AP, IB, CLEP and UExcel exams, as well as on the ACT and SAT, is intended to give high school students foundational knowledge for college courses.

For example, the SAT's optional essay requires students to conduct rhetorical analysis, a skill that students can and will apply in many majors, like English, political science and linguistics.

Practicing with ACT and SAT reading passages can also partially prepare students for college-level English and social science courses by exposing them to advanced vocabulary and training them to search for main ideas in dense texts.

Finally, knowledge of fundamental ACT and SAT math concepts , such as probability, averages and area, will be put to good use in college-level math and science classes.

Endurance Training

The ACT and SAT are long assessments, with each lasting approximately three hours. Except for occasional short breaks, students are expected to work through each assessment without interruptions. For this reason, the ACT and SAT are often imagined as long-haul challenges or "marathons" that require students to advance at a consistent and sustained pace.

Few other experiences train students to work under pressure for such extensive periods, yet this skill is essential in college and beyond. For instance, certain graduate admissions exams, like the GRE , LSAT and MCAT , all take longer than three consecutive hours to complete.

But it does not stop there. During internships and in the workplace, people must also concentrate on tasks for several hours before having a break. Standardized tests like the ACT and SAT give students a chance to start developing this skill early.

Students studying for the ACT, SAT and other standardized tests can take away transferable skills from their studies that will help later in life. Use standardized exams as opportunities to bolster and review the skill sets you have learned. Such tests can also build focus, study habits and academic stamina that will help you adjust to the difficulties of college.

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Tags: standardized tests , college admissions , SAT , ACT , high school , colleges , scholarships , advanced placement , International Baccalaureate , paying for college

About College Admissions Playbook

Stressed about getting into college? College Admissions Playbook, authored by Varsity Tutors , offers prospective college students advice on Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses, SAT and ACT exams and the college application process. Varsity Tutors, an advertiser with U.S. News & World Report, is a live learning platform that connects students with personalized instruction to accelerate academic achievement. The company's end-to-end offerings also include mobile learning apps, online learning environments and other tutoring and test prep-focused technologies. Got a question? Email [email protected] .

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Is the SAT Still Needed?

• Posted May 17, 2024
• By Elizabeth Christopher
• College Access and Success
• Counseling and Mental Health
• Education Reform
• Higher Education Leadership
• Inequality and Education Gaps

Sam Noel, a senior at Melrose High School in Massachusetts, didn’t sleep well the night before his SAT last spring. “I was nervous,” he says, not just about taking the college entrance exam but also about making it to the test center on time. When he searched online for a spot to take the test at his high school, or at any of the high schools in neighboring cities, the closest one he found was a 45-minute drive away.

Difficulty accessing test centers, a problem that reached its peak during the pandemic, is just one of the reasons colleges and universities have adopted test-optional admission policies. Another, and perhaps bigger reason, is the belief that making submissions of SAT or ACT scores optional is fairer and more equitable for students that come from less-advantaged backgrounds. Data shows that students from high-income families on average score higher than those who come from lower-income families. Recent research from Opportunity Insights, a team of Harvard-based researchers and policy analysts, which set out to examine if highly selective colleges perpetuate privilege across generations, reveals how wide the score gap is. 

“One-third of the children of the very richest families scored a 1300 or higher on the SAT, while less than 5% of middle-class students did,” out of a possible 1600, according to the study. “Relatively few children in the poorest families scored that high; just one in ­five took the test at all,” The New York Times reported, citing the study. 

This is where it gets complicated. 

Some researchers say that, despite that sobering data, dismissing the SAT and tests like it is shortsighted. Harvard Professor Raj Chetty, part of the Opportunity Insights team, told The New York Times the disparities in SAT scores by class and race are a “symptom, not a cause,” of educational inequality in the United States. Moreover, researchers like Chetty say SAT scores can do a good job of identifying students who are better prepared to complete the rigorous course work of Ivy Plus institutions — the eight ivy league schools, plus others like MIT and Duke. This is true regardless of the income level of students’ families, Chetty says. This is, in part, the reason schools like Harvard, Brown, Yale, and Dartmouth College are returning to requiring standardized tests for undergraduate admissions. Dartmouth did its own study on the role of testing in its admissions process and concluded that, as its website reads, “a standardized testing requirement will improve — not detract from — our ability to bring the most promising and diverse students to our campus.”

Yet many people, including college admissions officers and high school counselors, say the benefi­ts of making test scores optional in college admissions are too great to ignore. They feel that college admissions should be based on other aspects of a student’s application — the transcript, essay, letters of recommendation, and extracurricular activities. Today, more than 80% of colleges do not require applicants to submit standardized test scores as part of their college applications, according to Inside Higher Ed . 

And, so, the question being asked is, is the SAT still needed?

______________

Students’ scores from the SAT, ACT, and standardized tests like them are “just not the main thing a lot of colleges are paying attention to,” says Jamiere Abney, Ed.M.’17, director of admissions at Western Oregon University. He feels that concerns about grade inflation are overblown and that a student’s transcript, GPA, essay, and letters of recommendations do a better job of helping admissions officers understand who the student is and what their potential for success is. Taken together, these components of a student’s record “give us a three- to four-year story of who you are academically and intellectually, not just at one moment in time,” Abney says.

If a student sees a test requirement or if they see that their score falls below the average scores of students attending that school, they may wonder, “is this a school that I can even have a chance at?” says Abney, who favors his school’s test-optional policy because it “gives students one less thing to worry about.” Encouraging lower-income students to apply is important, he says, because earning a college degree is still one of the surest paths to upward social mobility. Forty-seven percent of students at Western Oregon, the oldest public university in the state, are first-generation college students; some of them might have opted out of applying to college if it weren’t for its test-optional policy. “If testing is what’s turning people away, then we have to ask ourselves, ‘Is it really worth it?’” 

In general, Clara Yom, Ed.M.’15, a high school counselor in Chicago, advises her students not to submit scores if that’s an option. “I usually tell them there should be a good reason you’re sending your SAT scores in with your application.” It’s rare for her to see an SAT score above 1200 and those scores just don’t reflect her students’ potential, she says. 

Between 75% and 80% of the students at the high school where Yom works now are eligible to receive free and reduced lunch, and a large percentage of students identify as Black and Latino. The vast majority of students at her school aspire to go to college. “Personally, I think it’s impossible to get an SAT score above 1200 without ‘studying’ the SAT,” she says. “It’s not like you get straight A’s in your high school classes and you take AP English and then you’re guaranteed a high score on the SAT.” Rather, it’s about learning how to take the test well and that often depends on having parents who can pay for tutoring. Before becoming a high school counselor, Yom worked as an SAT tutor. Most of the students she tutored came from affluent families and were able to raise their scores 200 to 300 points after weeks of drills.

Others who welcome test-optional policies do so because it represents a shift away from what they feel is an overemphasis on personal achievement. It says, “loud and clear, that who you are as a person and the choices you have made are more important than one test,” says Brennan Barnard, the college admissions program adviser for Making Caring Common, an Ed School project that seeks to help schools develop empathy in students. Colleges and universities should be looking at alternative ways to assess students’ readiness for college, says Barnard, who is also director of college counseling at the Khan Lab School, a mastery-based school in California, and author of The Truth About College Admission . “If a student shows they can master calculus and tutor other students, doesn’t that say a lot more about who they are as a student and their potential to be successful than a test score?” he says. 

But proponents of standardized testing say eliminating the SAT­ and ACT­, at least for admissions to Ivy Plus schools, would be a mistake because research shows that the tests uncover students who are more academically prepared for rigorous coursework, including those who come from less-advantaged backgrounds. 

“The SAT ­is a real lifeline for people who don’t go to elite high schools,” and who wouldn’t get noticed by admissions officers without those scores, says David Deming, a professor at the Ed School and the Harvard Kennedy School, as well as one of the authors of the Opportunity Insights study. This matters because attending an Ivy Plus school can have a significant impact on a student’s social mobility. “Attending an Ivy Plus instead of a flagship public college,” notes the study, “triples students’ chances of obtaining jobs at prestigious firms and substantially increases their chances of earning in the top 1%.” 

However, the researchers also found that Ivy Plus institutions currently rely “too much” on non-academic attributes of a student’s application in their admissions practices and “are more than twice as likely to admit a student from a high-income family as compared to a low- or middle-income family with comparable SAT­/ACT scores” because of their preferences for legacy applicants as well as for applicants with impressive extracurricular and athletic resumes. If these schools changed their admissions policies, the researchers say (to rely more heavily on SAT ­and ACT scores), then “Ivy Plus colleges could significantly diversify the socioeconomic backgrounds of America’s highest earners and leaders.” 

As Deming says, “No one is suggesting only the highest-scoring students be admitted to Ivy League colleges,” as diversity also needs to be a priority. But that goal can sit alongside another priority, he says, which is to admit students who are ready to succeed and who can benefit the most from a challenging academic environment. To get there, Deming supports a system that includes the SAT ­in student assessment but that also makes some allowances for students who come from lower-income families and are first-generation college students. “I think we do have that system in a lot of ways,” he says. “Colleges do tend to put a thumb on the scale positively for low-income students who do well on the SAT. That’s just empirically true.” 

The SAT is not perfect, says Deming, who believes test-taking practices that give the advantage to higher-income families should be eliminated. For example, he disagrees with “superscoring,” a practice which allows students who can afford to take the SAT or ACT multiple times to submit their highest scores without colleges knowing the number of times they took the test. But he maintains that “we should have some close-to-universally accepted standard of judging whether somebody is prepared to do rigorous college level work.” 

And that works best when everybody takes the test, according to Professor Andrew Ho, president of the National Council on Measurement in Education. He’s a proponent of requiring the tests in college applications, but only if everyone were required to take it. He points out that in states that require public high school students to take the SAT or ACT to graduate, the pool of college applicants is more balanced demographically. The problem when the test is not required is that some students talk themselves out of taking the test and potentially out of the running for some schools and “the people who have the money and the time … get over-represented in the population” of college applicants, he says. 

In 2007, Michigan began requiring its public high school students to take the ACT during their junior year, which the state offers for free during the school day. (Eleventh-graders in Michigan are now required to take the SAT. They are one of nearly a dozen states that have made the test mandatory.) As a result, the state saw small increases in college attendance, particularly among disadvantaged students. By mandating the test, wrote Professor Susan Dynarski in The New York Times in 2017, a significant number of low-income students who scored high enough to attend a selective college were discovered. “For every 1,000 students who scored well on the optional test, an additional 480 did so on the mandatory test,” she wrote.

As educators, researchers, parents, and students consider the question about whether the SAT is still needed, Ho says it’s important to remember that test scores are just one part of a five-legged stool that college admissions officers draw upon to make their decisions and believing the other legs of the stool — the personal essay, recommendation letters, student records, and extracurriculars — are fairer is wrong because there is more and more evidence that the wealthy have an advantage in those other areas. These advantages reflect deep-seated educational inequalities that begin to take hold long before a student takes the SAT, “including differences in school quality, neighborhood exposure, and many other environmental conditions,” according to Opportunity Insights. As Ho says, “Disparities in test scores reveal deep inequalities in educational opportunity, but removing the test does not remove the disparity.” 

Regardless of whether SAT and ACT are required as part of undergraduate college admissions, the educational inequality the test reveals is something we want to fix, says Deming. And how to do that comes down to an established formula, which, he says, includes more resources, more time in school, early childhood education, smaller classes, highly qualified teachers, attention to the core curriculum, and not letting students fall behind, which requires testing. “We can’t fix a problem unless we can diagnose it,” says Deming. He would also like to see more testing to identify learning gaps at the state, district, school, and even grade and classroom level. 

Part of the solution starts with changing how the public thinks about testing, says Ho. Tests like the SAT can be a tool for educational equity if we can break three fallacies, he says: “that test scores are more meaningful, more precise, and more permanent than they are.” Getting a low score doesn’t mean you can’t learn and thinking it does is damaging. Ho believes that educators are getting better about talking about how to interpret test scores in terms of asset frames versus deficit frames. In other words, “it’s not what you lack; it’s what you have and what you can do if we help. It takes good teachers, good educational systems, to remind people of this.” 

Melrose student Sam Noel made it to his test on time and was relieved when it was over, he says. It turned out that none of the schools he applied to required him to submit his scores and he was happy to have the option to share his scores only with the schools where he thought they’d make a difference in his application. 

Elizabeth Christopher is a writer based in Massachusetts. Her last story in Ed. focused on community college transfer challenges

Ed. Magazine

The magazine of the Harvard Graduate School of Education

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Choose Your Test

Sat / act prep online guides and tips, why take the sat 5 important reasons.

SAT General Info

Taking the SAT can be both stressful and boring, and sitting in a testing center is no one's idea of a fun Saturday morning. Why take the SAT, then? You may have heard that more and more colleges are becoming test optional, so is it still worth it to take the SAT? In this article, we'll talk about all the reasons to take the SAT, including why it might be a better test for you than the ACT.

Standardized test scores are an important part of college admissions, but they also have value beyond that: taking the SAT can earn you tens of thousands of dollars in financial aid or help you get a job! Below are the five key reasons why to take the SAT.

#1: Most Colleges Require Test Scores

There are some colleges that don't require scores— schools that are test-optiona l or even completely test-blind. Test-optional policies became much more popular as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, when many students couldn't take the SAT or ACT. Most schools became test optional only temporarily, but some  decided to make it a permanent change.

That being said, standardized test scores are still an important part of the application process, and most colleges want to see your scores from the SAT or ACT. Even if a school is test optional, having a strong test score will boost your application and help you stand out from the crowd. If you decide not to take the SAT, it can limit the colleges you're able to apply to and cause you to lose out on a chance to make your application even more impressive. 

Taking the SAT or ACT thus means keeping a considerable number of college options open that would otherwise be closed to you.

#2: There Are Scholarships for High Scorers

It's very common for colleges to award merit-based financial aid to top applicants. Test scores are often one of the most important factors in determining which students get scholarships and which don't. Even if the schools you're applying to are test optional, they may still require SAT or ACT scores for financial aid. Because financial aid packages are often worth tens of thousands of dollars, it'd be well worth your time to take the SAT to be eligible for these awards, even if the exam is not technically required to apply to the school.

#3: Your State or High School Might Require It

Surprise! Even if the none of the colleges you're applying to require the SAT, you still might end up taking it if your high school requires it or if you live in one of the states that requires the SAT . In these cases, you'll take the SAT at school, during the school day. You can send scores from these in-school tests to colleges the same way you would with any other SAT scores, but you also aren't required to send them if you aren't happy with how you did on the exam .

#4: Some Jobs Require Test Scores

This may seem odd, and it's certainly a newer trend. Still, some potential bosses want to see your standardized test scores before they hire you.

This doesn't just apply to test prep jobs, either; this requirement pops up in consulting and finance-related jobs, too. And, according to the Wall Street Journal, it's getting more common .

It may not be standard practice, but you don't want to pass on the perfect job because an employer wants SAT scores and you don't have them.

#5: The SAT Might Suit You Better Than the ACT

If you decide that it is in your best interest to take a standardized test, you have options. The SAT's competitor is the ACT, and, despite what you might think, there are actually some significant differences between the two tests. We have an entire article devoted to helping you decide between the SAT and ACT , but here's a summary of five key differences: 

The SAT Doesn't Have a Science Section

The SAT incorporates some scientific passages in its test, but there's no all-out science section. The ACT's science section   contains 40 questions and accounts for a quarter of your final ACT score. Despite its name, ACT Science focuses on graph and data interpretation rather than scientific facts like what photosynthesis is or the parts of a cell.

The SAT has questions that test concepts similar to those in ACT Science, but not nearly as many of them. So, if you want to minimize the number of questions asking you to analyze graphs, charts, and data, the SAT may be a better test for you. 

The SAT Tests Fewer Math Topics

In regard to math content, both the ACT  and  SAT  have a big emphasis on algebra.   However, the ACT also tests certain math topics that the SAT either doesn't focus on as much or excludes entirely.

On the ACT, roughly  30-45% of the math questions focus on geometry.  In contrast, geometry accounts for less than 10% of SAT Math questions.   Additionally,  trigonometry accounts for about 7% of the ACT  but  less than 5% of the SAT , so  there's a slightly larger emphasis of trig on the ACT than there is on the SAT. 

The ACT also tests a few concepts that the SAT doesn’t test at all,  such as matrices, graphs of trig functions, and logarithms.

Which math section you prefer is largely a matter of your preferences and individual strengths. If algebra is a particular strength for you, the SAT may be a better choice because it has more algebra questions. Similarly, if you struggle with math, you may also appreciate that the SAT tests fewer math concepts in general, meaning you have to study fewer math topics. 

The SAT Provides a Math Formula Sheet

Here's another math-related difference:   the SAT provides you with a diagram of math formulas, whereas the ACT does not.  

Before the two SAT Math subsections, you'll be given  a diagram containing 12 geometry formulas and three laws:

Unlike the SAT,  the ACT doesn’t give you any formulas on test day, meaning you must memorize all potential formulas before taking the test. If the security of having a formula sheet makes you feel more confident to take on math questions, that's another plus for the SAT.

The SAT Organizes Its Reading Questions

SAT Reading questions come in the order of the progression of each passage , complete with line numbers to help you find the point of reference. The ACT lacks these features; it involves a lot more scrambling to situate what the questions are even discussing. If the extra help that the SAT provides is important to you, consider taking the SAT rather than the ACT.

The SAT Gives More Time Per Question

Standardized tests are always going to have a time crunch. However, the SAT gives you a little extra breathing room compared to the ACT. The chart below shows how many minutes and seconds are allocated to each question on both tests. What you'll see is that the SAT is slightly less rushed.

If you get nervous or overly stressed under time constraints, the SAT is the test for you. You'll still have to compete with the clock, but it won't be quite as frantic as the ACT.

Conclusion: Why Take the SAT?

Taking the SAT (or ACT) seems to be the decision most college-bound students make . There is, in fact, very good reason for this pattern; as discussed above, these tests can help you find your way into college, get a scholarship to pay for college, and even land a job down the road.

There are also some distinct reasons that the SAT may serve many students better than the ACT .

Whether you're wondering whether to take any standardized test or second-guessing your decision to sign up for the SAT in the first place, you can use this article to review and consider the merits of the test.

What's Next?

Wondering what all this means for the ACT ? Take a moment to read about whether you should take both tests or only one.

This article has touched on how the two tests are different , but do also take some time to investigate the issue in more detail. We've got a comparison chart that should do just the trick.

Since math is a point of especial concern for many students , you may want to read a more detailed analysis of how ACT and SAT math are the same and different .

Vero is a firsthand expert at standardized testing and the college application process. Though neither parent had graduated high school, and test prep was out of the question, she scored in the 99th percentile on both the SAT and ACT, taking each test only once. She attended Dartmouth, graduating as salutatorian of 2013. She later worked as a professional tutor. She has a great passion for the arts, especially theater.

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Opinion Guest Essay

Try Living in Elon Musk’s Company Town

Credit... Mike Osborne for The New York Times

Supported by

By Christopher Hooks

Photographs by Mike Osborne

Mr. Hooks is a writer based in Austin, Texas.

• May 24, 2024

J ust after 7 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 18, as the sun was rising in the Gulf of Mexico, Noel Rangel, a 26-year-old native of Brownsville, Texas, was brought unwillingly into wakefulness by an uninvited sensation: The richest man in the world was shaking him. Or rather, his entire apartment. His bed was rumbling, his windows rattling. “I could hear the glass,” he said. He was confused. He woke as if Elon Musk himself had grabbed him by the shoulders.

Americans as a whole have become more familiar with the tax that powerful and erratic figures levy on people’s emotional and mental well-being. Though many very rich men fantasize about disconnecting from other humans — to go to space, or, in the case of the tech billionaire Peter Thiel, to create artificial cities in international waters — they are more desperate for social validation, not less. They need to inspire love or fear or awe.

Many people suspect that Donald Trump — though he denies it — ran for president in part because he was tired of being mocked so often. Jeff Bezos spent $42 million to build a mechanical clock under a West Texas mountain that is intended to last 10,000 years. Mr. Musk spent $44 billion of mostly other people’s money to buy Twitter, rebrand it as X and guarantee that he could continue to irritate people on a global scale.

For Mr. Rangel, what was figurative for others had become literal: When a tycoon stomps, the earth shakes. Mr. Musk’s company SpaceX had launched a new iteration of its Starship rocket about 25 miles away. That one didn’t blow up over his city as previous launches had. But Mr. Rangel still couldn’t go back to sleep. Across social media, some residents shared his irritation at being roused by a launch they did not realize was coming.

Their irritation was perhaps surprising. Brownsville has become something of a company town for SpaceX, its largest private employer, and the most high-profile firm in the commercial space industry right now. Its more than 13,000 employees build rockets, launch NASA astronauts on their journeys to the International Space Station, provide broadband internet via satellite and are working toward an ambitious goal to send people to Mars one day.

Murals glorifying the company dot Brownsville’s downtown, which has been spruced up with donations from Mr. Musk. Businesses have reoriented to serve space tourists who flock from all over the world to see his rockets up close. To some, Mr. Musk has given Brownsville, a particularly poor city of about 200,000 in a neglected part of Texas, a reason for being, a future. To others, he’s a colonizer, flirting with white nationalists online while exploiting a predominantly brown work force in one of Texas’ fringes.

Those debates have been reported in dozens of articles about Brownsville in the last decade. I suspect the real reason journalists keep coming to the city is that it serves as a stand-in for debates about America’s increasingly plutocrat-based economy and culture. NASA’s decades-long solar research program is called Living With a Star, signifying respect for a neighbor that is all-powerful and unaccountable. Brownsville is accruing data for a project that you might call Living With Elon.

A community organizer in the city who opposes SpaceX’s intrusion into Brownsville, Bekah Hinojosa, told me at length about the material concerns she had — pollution, the cost of living, the fragile environment around the company’s launchpad. But Ms. Hinojosa’s core complaint was that her native city didn’t feel like it belonged to her anymore, and that it felt as though public officials were changing the city to become a center for space tourism. It was a kind of psychological burden. “It’s exhausting,” she said. “We are constantly being bombarded by Elon Musk and SpaceX news down here.” There was the ever-present threat that “Elon might show up to charro days, or sombrero fest,” she said, referring to some of the local festivals. Most of all, she wished simply to stop having to think about him so much.

In that sense, we’re all living in Brownsville now.

I live about 300 miles from Brownsville, in Austin, Texas, where Mr. Musk moved in 2020. His presence here is felt very strongly: Residents whisper about his social life, and his companies’ health affects the real estate market. In 2022, he bought the website formerly known as Twitter, where I am still, as a journalist, effectively required to spend a good portion of my time online. Mr. Musk’s presence made both places worse, a little cheaper, a little phonier. His promises always seemed to fall flat, both the trivial (he vowed to eradicate bots, but now X is filled with automated porn ) and the consequential (he vowed to make his Tesla factory in Austin an “ecological paradise” but is now fighting to exempt it from environmental regulations).

Around that time, I started to consider how much of my adult life had been intimately shaped by billionaires and the otherwise very wealthy. The answer, I realized, was all of it. For a decade I’ve written about Texas politics, which is almost all reducible to fights between plutocrats belonging to different factions. I was a stenographer recording the symptoms of feuds between powerful men I’d never meet. National politics was not much different. At some point, it became more important to follow Thiel and Robert Mercer than the speaker of the House. Billionaires ran the new media (Mr. Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin and Larry Page) and the old (Rupert Murdoch, the Sinclair family). My childhood newspaper, The Austin American-Statesman, was gutted by the mismanagement of the Cox family, descendants of old-school media barons, and then sold to hedge-fund vultures. The chaos they created was inseparable from the chaos I was writing about in politics.

For all their wealth and power, these figures generally seem maladjusted, unhappy and insecure. Maybe that is to be expected. In 2012, social scientists found that those driving more valuable cars were less likely to stop for pedestrians at a crosswalk. If that’s what a slightly nicer whip does to the human brain, what does ten thousand million dollars do? What strange ideas might you develop about yourself? Would you feel bound by conventional morality? Would anyone around you seem real?

Mr. Musk seems even more disconnected to the bonds that tie the rest of us. He has talked often of his suspicion that the world around us is a computer simulation, which seems less of a philosophical inquiry than an explanation of how far he feels from human connection. When one of his children came out as trans and it was reported that she no longer talked to her father, he said , “Can’t win them all.” He has reportedly discouraged workers at his injury-prone factories from wearing brightly colored safety vests because he thinks them aesthetically displeasing.

He rages against the haters, the doubters, the clods who don’t understand his brilliance. But his complaints prove that he needs admiration more than anything. I was an admirer once: He built electric cars and rocket ships, what wasn’t to like? But while he retains a devoted fan base, it doesn’t seem to be enough. He seems most alive on his social media website, a place where everyone seems a little bit sad.

I n Brownsville, though, Mr. Musk has in the real world what he can’t quite grasp online — a captive audience, and people who need him, both for the material benefits he provides and the vision he offers to the town. Though he has detractors too, they’re greatly outnumbered by those who feel positively about the company. In elections, there’s no real anti-SpaceX faction: The powers that be are generally quite hostile to those who, like the organizer Ms. Hinojosa, speak up.

One of Brownsville’s strongest believers in the Musk project is Jessica Tetreau, a former city commissioner who was at City Hall the day the company’s representatives first came to town in 2011. Ms. Tetreau had a “very hard childhood” in Brownsville in the 1980s and ’90s, she said, when it was a place with “very limited opportunities.” When she was 2, her father was laid off when a Union Carbide chemical plant closed. For the rest of her childhood, she says, he had to travel regularly to Texas City to work at another Union Carbide plant.

When SpaceX first pitched Brownsville on building the launch site, Ms. Tetreau said, most city officials didn’t seem to get it. They joked off-mic about which locals they’d most like to send into orbit. But she lit up, immediately understanding that this was a big deal, that Brownsville could be part of something that would save humanity by paving man’s road to the stars. Ms. Tetreau went all in. She bought her first Tesla in 2015. She bought her children Tesla Cybertruck toys to play with and SpaceX blankets to cover themselves with at night.

She recounts the material benefits of SpaceX. Her constituents got good-paying jobs — a welding position currently advertised at the Brownsville facility starts at $18 per hour — in a region where the ship breaking industry was previously a primary source of employment. Two years ago, the city’s mayor told reporters SpaceX employed 1,600 people , and its presence netted $885 million in gross economic output for the county. Brownsville public school students got to broaden their horizons in programs held at the SpaceX production facility. In 2021, Mr. Musk pledged $30 million to local schools and a downtown Brownsville rejuvenation program — a substantial sum that amounts to about 0.01 percent of his current net worth.

But no less a boon was the fact that Brownsville could wrap itself in Mr. Musk’s expansive, and spiritual, vision for the company: its mission to, as Ms. Tetreau says, “preserve humanity and extend consciousness” with human settlement of the solar system. If the city once lacked hope for a better future, it could now consider itself part of the grand progression of human civilization.

Protective of the dream, Ms. Tetreau responds stiffly to criticism of Mr. Musk. I ask her about a Reuters report that Brownsville SpaceX workers are being injured at a rate six times that of the industry average, in part because Mr. Musk discourages the traditional safety practices (which he reportedly finds inefficient). She responds that she “never heard of anybody getting hurt.” She says that in person, Mr. Musk is “actually very genuine and kind and a humble person.” She asks SpaceX’s critics in Brownsville to remember that he just may be saving the human race.

Though I never felt as strongly in Mr. Musk’s promise as Ms. Tetreau did, I think I understand it. In a way, I envy it, in the same way I envy friends who have a strong and sincere religious belief. In writing about politics, I am struck forcefully again and again by the desire most people have to be part of a grand story, an exciting narrative that gives meaning to their lives. We live in an age of declining religious belief and existential unrest. Mr. Musk is offering the public a chance to be part of his grand narrative. It’s a kindness.

Just like actual religious belief, Musk fandom has the tendency to cloud people’s minds. The belief he provides in “the future” comes at a cost. Where some amount of natural beauty in utilitarian Texas has been preserved to the present day, it is often simply because the land is not useful.

Boca Chica, the little beach and wilderness area east of Brownsville where SpaceX launches rockets, wasn’t useful to anybody until the company came around. The flat scrubland and low dunes around Starbase, the somewhat grandiose name the company has given its industrial processing facility and chemical tank farms, aren’t much to look at. The area’s main virtue is that it is physically isolated from human populations — inaccessible to tourist beach towns to the north because of the Brownsville Ship Channel, cut off from the south by the Rio Grande and the Mexican border, and half an hour’s drive to Brownsville, the largest nearby city.

But this isolation made it a special place. Sea turtles left eggs along the beach. Dolphins shelter in the Laguna Madre, north of the launch site. Wildcats like ocelots roam the land; the last confirmed local sighting of a jaguarundi occurred nearby in 1986, and they may still be there. Most of all, the area is one of the best places for birding in the United States. The wetlands and sheltered beaches provide a perfect stopover for sea birds and migratory birds, some of whom rely on Boca Chica Beach to breed.

In 2021 , I tagged along with Stephanie Bilodeau, a biologist whose job it was to count local bird populations at Boca Chica — particularly the snowy plover, a comically small shorebird that lays eggs the size of Ping-Pong balls in the Boca Chica underbrush. Snowy plover populations have been in decline. Another type of bird that rested in the area, the biologist explained, migrated annually from the Arctic Circle to the Antarctic Circle and back — navigating with methods no scientist had yet been able to figure out. This was a much more impressive accomplishment than anything Neil Armstrong had done, I remember thinking, never having paid much attention to birds before.

We sat in the rain near the launchpad’s parking area, filled with Teslas. The nests the biologist counted were in steep decline. The beach nearby was dotted with chunks of steel, left from a recent catastrophic launch attempt that ended in what the company calls a “rapid unscheduled disassembly.” Other failed launches and the normal operations of the facility may have dumped rocket fuel and industrial wastewater over the nearby wildlife refuge. I told Ms. Bilodeau that Mr. Musk had recently spoken about the possibility of bringing endangered species to Mars , letting them live on even if they went extinct at home. Did that seem feasible? “Probably not,” she said, looking defeated. I felt grateful for the work she did, and a bit sorry for her. She was like a village priest who keeps tidying the church as the years go by and the congregation thins.

M r. Musk has also seemed more defeated than usual lately, though it’s hard to say why. Partly, at least, it’s his mystification at the criticism he has received. “I’ve done more for the environment than any single human on earth,” he mopily told the New York Times journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin onstage at a DealBook conference in November. He had done capital-g Good, while his critics — in this case, those who were looking uneasily at his repeated affirmations of white nationalists and antisemites on the social media website he owned — only pretended to be good. (This was the interview in which Mr. Musk used a crude insult toward advertisers who pulled out of X because of his endorsement of antisemitic posts.)

Mr. Sorkin noted, in so many words, that Mr. Musk seemed sad, his mind stormy , that he seemed to be reaching for something he couldn’t grasp. In extended digressions that approximated a talk therapy session, Mr. Musk turned unprompted to SpaceX and seemed to suggest that it was a balm for the lack of meaning he perceived in the universe. “My motivation, then, was that well, my life is finite, really a flash in the pan, on a galactic time scale, but if we can expand the scope and scale of consciousness … maybe we can find out the meaning of life,” he said. As an example of the excitement we might find Out There, he asked: “Where are the aliens? Are there aliens? Is there new physics to discover?”

SpaceX hoped to present to other humans struggling with the big questions “the idea of us being a spacefaring civilization.” That’s the language Ms. Tetreau and so many others in Brownsville and elsewhere have picked up on: the idea that by “making humanity multiplanetary” by facilitating human settlement of Mars and beyond and by protecting sentience in case humans one day die off here, the “light of consciousness” will be preserved or extended.

It’s language that sounds as if it might come from an Eastern religion — taking the Dao to Pluto — or New Age syncretists . Mr. Musk has self-interested reasons to make this case, of course. If SpaceX has a spiritual mission, then he is a spiritual leader, all the better to receive the approval he seems to crave. In 2021, he argued that he shouldn’t pay higher taxes because it would interfere with his mission to “preserve the light of consciousness.”

But he clearly also believes it. And Mr. Musk is properly understood as a kind of spiritual leader. There’s something of a dividing line among SpaceX fans between engineer types who think the rockets are cool, and those who accept Mr. Musk’s premise that the company is saving the human race. He offers community. He offers hope.

Will any of it happen? It seems doubtful. SpaceX’s Starship has reached orbit. But regular safe transport to the Red Planet is a fabulously difficult proposition, the kind of project that could only be undertaken by sovereign governments. Once the light of consciousness does touch down there, what does it do? Mars may have water and other potential resources, but on top of its profound hostility to human life, the planet looks like the most charmless corner of the American Southwest, without the saving grace of being able to grab a Cherry Coke slushie from a nearby filling station.

In truth, it doesn’t really matter whether Mr. Musk’s most ambitious dreams become reality. (Except to NASA, which is counting on a perfected Starship to ferry its astronauts to the moon in 2026.) We’ve been conditioned by a century of media and storytelling to believe that the next great adventure is waiting for us in space — the frontier extended. We’ll solve our problems out there, unburdened by Earth’s gravity and the weight of thousands of years of history. We’ll make friends, we’ll learn about ourselves, we’ll get wiser and better. And if we can’t quite get there yet, we’ll eagerly wait for the day when we can.

It’s worth noting, though, that astronauts who have experienced revelatory change in space are struck not by how much is up there but by how little. The emotional impact of seeing Earth from a distance is called the “overview effect,” and while everyone experiences it differently, it often manifests as a kind of sorrow and loneliness mitigated by a feeling of community and solidarity with all that remains on Earth.

In July 2021, Jeff Bezos, a different billionaire with a private space program in a different part of Texas, experienced weightlessness, briefly, after being launched by a Blue Origin rocket. A few months later, the company launched William Shatner, the progenitor, as Captain Kirk, of several generations of adolescent space fantasies. When he landed, while Mr. Bezos grinned nearby at the success of his latest toy, Mr. Shatner wept . He was struck not by how much was “up there” but how little. “Everything I had thought was wrong,” Mr. Shatner wrote later . “The contrast between the vicious coldness of space and the warm nurturing of Earth below filled me with overwhelming sadness.” He suddenly understood how fragile the home planet was, and he knew it was all we had.

If Mr. Bezos had a flash of the same insight, he didn’t show it. It must be fun to have a toy box like that — with spaceships, cities on the sea, yachts and submarines. But it comes at the cost of sight. Having stretched out their arms for glory, men like Mr. Musk can’t see that their real legacy may be, when the final accounting comes, the price others paid for them. In Brownsville, for each beneficiary of the largess, there are costs: residents displaced, workers injured, endangered animals harmed, a community disrupted.

That’s true everywhere Mr. Musk goes. Our consolation is that we can see right through him and the others. They seem to be no happier. Their preoccupations make them appear strangely small, sometimes even pitiable. Thiel, Mr. Musk’s former business partner, has spent decades and millions of dollars trying to prevent his own death. No poor man could be so foolish.

We have all been given the light of consciousness, to nurture and protect. But for all his abilities, for all his assets, Mr. Musk is stuck looking for redemption in a place that doesn’t hold it. The meaning of life isn’t on Mars, but in Brownsville. The only meaning available to us is in one another: love and friendship, truth and beauty where it can be found, the snowy plover and Noel Rangel in his bed.

Christopher Hooks is a Texas native and writer based in Austin. He is a contributing editor to Texas Monthly.

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