does the new sat have an essay

The Optional SAT Essay: What to Know

Tackling this section of the SAT requires preparation and can boost some students' college applications.

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Even though an increasing number of colleges are dropping standardized test requirements, students who must write the SAT essay can still stand to gain from doing so.

Although the essay portion of the SAT became optional in 2016, many students still chose to write it to demonstrate strong or improved writing skills to prospective colleges.

In June 2021, the College Board opted to discontinue the SAT essay. Now, only students in a few states and school districts still have access to — and must complete — the SAT essay. This requirement applies to some students in the SAT School Day program, for instance, among other groups.

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Tiffany Sorensen Sept. 14, 2020

Whether or not to write the SAT essay is not the biggest decision you will have to make in high school, but it is certainly one that requires thought on your part. Here are three things you should know about the 50-minute SAT essay as you decide whether to complete it:

• To excel on the SAT essay, you must be a trained reader.
• The SAT essay begs background knowledge of rhetoric and persuasive writing.
• A growing number of colleges are dropping standardized test requirements.

To Excel on the SAT Essay, You Must Be a Trained Reader

The SAT essay prompt never comes unaccompanied. On the contrary, it follows a text that is about 700 words long or approximately one page. Before test-takers can even plan their response, they must carefully read and – ideally – annotate the passage.

The multifaceted nature of the SAT essay prompt can be distressing to students who struggle with reading comprehension. But the good news is that this prompt is highly predictable: It always asks students to explain how the author builds his or her argument. In this case, "how” means which rhetorical devices are used, such as deductive reasoning, metaphors, etc.

Luckily, the author’s argument is usually spelled out in the prompt itself. For instance, consider this past SAT prompt : “Write an essay in which you explain how Paul Bogard builds an argument to persuade his audience that natural darkness should be preserved.”

Due to the essay prompt’s straightforward nature, students should read the passage with an eye toward specific devices used by the author rather than poring over “big ideas.” In tour SAT essay, aim to analyze at least two devices, with three being even better.

The SAT Essay Begs Background Knowledge of Rhetoric and Persuasive Writing

Since your SAT essay response must point to specific rhetorical devices that the author employs to convince the reader, you should make it a point to intimately know 10-15 common ones. The more familiar you are with rhetorical devices, the faster you will become at picking them out as you read texts.

Once you have read the passage and identified a handful of noteworthy rhetorical devices, you should apply many of the same essay-writing techniques you already use in your high school English classes.

For instance, you should start by brainstorming to see which devices you have the most to say about. After that, develop a concise thesis statement, incorporate quotes from the text, avoid wordiness and other infelicities of writing, close with an intriguing conclusion, and do everything else you could imagine your English teacher advising you to do.

Remember to always provide evidence from the text to support your claims. Finally, leave a few minutes at the end to review your essay for mistakes.

A Growing Number of Colleges Are Dropping Standardized Test Requirements

In recent years, some of America’s most prominent colleges and universities – including Ivy League institutions like Harvard University in Massachusetts, Princeton University in New Jersey and Yale University in Connecticut – have made submission of ACT and SAT scores optional.

While this trend began as early as 2018, the upheaval caused by COVID-19 has prompted many other schools to adopt a more lenient testing policy, as well.

Advocates for educational fairness have long expressed concerns that standardized admissions tests put underprivileged students at a disadvantage. In light of the coronavirus pandemic , which restricted exam access for almost all high school students, colleges have gotten on board with this idea by placing more emphasis on other factors in a student’s application.

To assess writing ability in alternative ways, colleges now place more emphasis on students’ grades in language-oriented subjects, as well as college application documents like the personal statement .

The fact that more colleges are lifting their ACT/SAT requirement does not imply that either test or any component of it is now obsolete. Students who must write the SAT essay can still stand to gain from doing so, especially those who wish to major in a writing-intensive field. The essay can also demonstrate a progression or upward trajectory in writing skills.

The SAT essay can give a boost to the college applications of the few students to whom it is still available. If the requirement applies to you, be sure to learn more about the SAT essay and practice it often as you prepare for your upcoming SAT.

13 Test Prep Tips for SAT and ACT Takers

Tags: SAT , standardized tests , students , education

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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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Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, does the sat still have an essay.

Hi! I've heard mixed information about the SAT essay. Does the current SAT still include an essay section or has it been removed? I'd appreciate any clarity on this!

Hello! The SAT has undergone a range of changes lately, and in June 2021, the College Board eliminated the optional Essay section from the SAT. This means that the current SAT no longer includes an essay portion, and you'll only be assessed on the Evidence-Based Reading and Writing and Math sections. With this change, it's essential to focus on maximizing your scores in these two sections to demonstrate your academic abilities to colleges and universities.

Additionally, many colleges now place greater emphasis on personal statements and supplemental essays in their evaluation of your writing abilities instead of turning to your SAT Essay score. To make sure your essays are as strong as possible, consider utilizing CollegeVine's Free Peer Essay Review Tool, or submitting your essay for a paid review by an expert college admissions advisor through CollegeVine's marketplace.

Best of luck with your SAT!

About CollegeVine’s Expert FAQ

CollegeVine’s Q&A seeks to offer informed perspectives on commonly asked admissions questions. Every answer is refined and validated by our team of admissions experts to ensure it resonates with trusted knowledge in the field.

The SAT is now digital for the first time. One test expert says the new format makes the test easier.

• A new digital SAT is now being offered for the first time. 
• The test is shorter, adaptive, and tests real-world skills.
• One test expert says it's easier than past versions but clarifies it's still not an easy test. 

In March, the first US high school students took the SAT exam — digitally.

This switch to digital comes as many top-tier colleges, such as Dartmouth, Yale, and Brown, are reversing their decision to be exam-optional — a trend that started during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, a recent study suggests that test scores actually do predict academic performance and college success — better than high school grades.

Shaan Patel — the founder and CEO of Prep Expert, with more than two decades of experience with the popular college entrance exam — told Business Insider the test will be significantly different than in the past. It may even be easier.

The digital SAT has some content changes

For starters, the digital test will be shorter and adaptive. That means the test will get harder as the student progresses through it, but the level of difficulty will depend on how they performed on earlier questions.

According to Patel, the digital SAT is also more "student-friendly" than previous years.

For example, in the past, there was a section where students couldn't use the calculator, but on the digital SAT, Patel said a calculator could be used on all the questions.

"There's even a digital calculator built into the testing application, in case you don't have a graphing calculator," Patel said.

Related stories

In addition, the reading passages are a lot shorter in the new exam. The essay section has also been dissolved, and the grammar questions have now been integrated with the reading section.

"So it really tests your reading and writing together, which I think will be a welcome change for most people," Patel said.

Plus, there are new question types where students read notes and decipher what is most relevant.

"I think that's a super useful skill in the real world where you get a long email, and you have to sift through the important data," Patel said.

He added students no longer have to memorize difficult, obscure vocabulary words that were once required.

The digital SAT is easier

"The new question types are actually testing students in a much more real-world manner than the previous versions of the SAT," Patel said. "Overall, this test will be more relevant to real-world skills . So, I'm optimistic the changes will be good."

He said, in that regard, the SAT will be easier.

"But, I want to be careful about saying it's easy," Patel said. "I don't think it's easy because what's going to happen is with the adaptive testing structure…you are going to see harder questions as you go along, even though you're going to see fewer questions."

Prep for the SAT shouldn't change all that much

Patel recommended that all students download the College Board's Bluebook app , where they can take practice tests and familiarize themselves with the new adaptive feature.

"They must get used to not letting their brain become overused at the end of the test since that is when most students will encounter the hardest questions," Patel said.

But the most important piece of advice remained the same: prep early.

"I usually recommend getting started in 10th grade so that by the time the fall of 11th grade rolls around, you'll be ready to knock the PSAT out of the park," Patel said, "because the PSAT, especially this new digital PSAT , is more similar to the digital SAT than ever."

Watch: The SAT is getting a massive overhaul — and they’re ditching one of the most annoying parts

• Main content

The SAT is coming back at some colleges. It’s stressing everyone out.

A patchwork of admissions test policies is wreaking havoc on students, parents and college admissions consultants.

A California mother drove 80 miles this month to find an SAT testing center with an open seat where her high school junior could take the exam. During college tours this spring, a teen recalled hearing some would-be applicants groan when admissions staffers announced they could not guarantee test-optional policies would continue.

And across the country, college counselors are fielding questions from teenagers alarmed, encouraged or simply confused by what seems like the return of the standardized test in admissions — maybe? Sort of? In some places, but not in others?

“You could be expecting and preparing for a certain way to apply to a college and present yourself — but then they change it mid-application process,” said Kai Talbert, a 17-year-old high school junior in Pennsylvania. “That’s really confusing. It can set back a lot of people.”

Colleges nationwide have been updating their coronavirus-era policies on standardized testing, which many dropped when the pandemic shut down in-person testing centers. Some of the most selective schools are declaring they will require tests again — including, across the last two months, Dartmouth College and Yale and Brown universities. Others, such as the University of Chicago and Columbia University, won’t. And still others have not yet picked a permanent policy: Princeton, Stanford, Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania have said they will remain test-optional for another year or two, and Harvard University plans to keep its test-optional policy at least through the 2025-26 application cycle.

Public universities have veered in different directions, too: The University of Tennessee system requires tests. The University of Michigan will be test-optional. The University of California system is test-blind, meaning schools refuse to consider SAT or ACT scores for admissions.

The patchwork of policies is wreaking havoc on applicants, parents and college admissions consultants nationwide, who are being forced to recalculate where and how they are willing to apply — or what to tell anxious teenagers about whether to test, retest or skip testing entirely — as decisions keep rolling out in real time.

Laurie Kopp Weingarten, founder of One-Stop College Counseling in New Jersey, said she has a new response whenever a student gives her a list of their school targets. She starts by going down the list, school by school, to review each institution’s testing rules and whether those seem likely to change.

Taking a breath, Weingarten rattled off a summary of the different testing requirements in place at every Ivy League school. It took her three minutes.

“Even just saying it, it sounds like insanity to me, and then we’re expecting kids to understand this?” Weingarten said. “Colleges should really analyze the data, come up with a decision and stop changing their mind.”

The shifting testing expectations are among many changes roiling college admissions this year. Colleges are still grappling with the fallout from the landmark Supreme Court ruling that ended the use of race-based affirmative action in admissions. Many are undertaking an array of experiments in response to the decision in a bid to maintain diverse admitted classes — ending legacy preferences in some cases, adding essay prompts on adversity or identity in others, or increasing outreach in low-income areas.

And the disastrous rollout of a federal financial aid form that was supposed to simplify the notoriously difficult process has left students, parents and schools scrambling .

This is the most hectic and distressing admissions cycle in recent memory, said Jennifer Nuechterlein, a college and career counselor at a New Jersey high school. She laid special blame on schools that reinstated testing mandates in the past two months, some of which affect the high school juniors who will begin applying in the fall. This class of teens will have to take the SAT or ACT, should they decide to do so, within the next six months.

“Students can’t just test overnight,” Nuechterlein said. “There are students who want to prep, there are students who are not math- or English-ready. ... Students are going to be unprepared.”

For the most ambitious, high-achieving students, the tests are another stressful hurdle to clear as they apply to the most selective colleges. And for many other students, the test scores — even if not required for admission — are mandatory if they want to qualify for some financial aid programs or, on some campuses, certain degree programs.

Critics of standardized tests have argued that they mirror, or exacerbate, societal inequities, in part because students from unstable homes or with limited resources cannot afford SAT or ACT tutors or testing preparation classes, or may not know of free resources such as Khan Academy . Even before the pandemic, some schools had moved to make the scores optional to avoid creating another barrier for students.

Then the pandemic hit, spurring a crisis response when students literally could not access spaces in which to take standardized tests, said Dominique J. Baker, a University of Delaware associate professor of education and public policy who studies admissions policies.

“There were a number of institutions that never would have chosen to have gone test-optional except the pandemic made them,” she said. “Those institutions, by and large, are going back to requiring test scores.”

MIT, Georgetown University and the University of Florida are among schools that quickly chose to reinstate the requirements, with MIT announcing the change in 2022. Many others have spent the years since the virus arrived studying what effect going test-optional had on their admitted classes.

At Brown, Yale and Dartmouth, officials said they had found something surprising: Considering test scores would help them identify more promising applicants from disadvantaged backgrounds, not fewer. After looking at their own data, leaders at the three Ivy League schools say they concluded that SAT and ACT scores are highly predictive of students’ academic performance in college, more so than high school grades. They also found that some less-advantaged students withheld their scores when sharing them would have boosted their chances.

Depriving admissions officers of SAT and ACT scores meant they were less able to evaluate an applicant’s chances of thriving at Brown, Provost Francis J. Doyle III said in an interview this month .

“Our analysis suggested our admissions could be more effective if we brought back testing as an instrument,” Doyle said.

The University of Texas at Austin is also choosing to require testing again, the school announced earlier this month. Jay Hartzell, the school’s president, said he and others worried the cost and preparation associated with the tests could keep students from applying. But about 90 percent of UT Austin applicants in the latest round took the SAT even though it was optional, Hartzell said. And the school found that students who declined to submit scores were less successful once enrolled.

John Friedman, a professor of economics and international and public affairs at Brown, said he wouldn’t be surprised if more of those highly selective schools reinstate a testing requirement. He was one of the authors of the study from Opportunity Insights, a nonprofit at Harvard University, on standardized test scores and student performance at a dozen “Ivy-plus” universities.

“It’s not just about the test scores being a good predictor,” he said. “We show in the paper that students who attend a school, having been admitted without a test score, perform at the bottom of the distribution.” He said schools should look at their own data to determine their policy.

Nonetheless, most schools nationwide will probably remain test-optional, predicted Angel Pérez, the chief executive of the National Association for College Admission Counseling. For many institutions, he said, the policy has been a huge success, bumping up the number of applicants and diversifying admitted classes.

He added that most American high-schoolers are applying to schools that admit nearly all applicants, to public schools or to colleges close to home, he said: “So the majority of students aren’t going to be impacted.”

Morehouse College is among those maintaining a test-optional policy, which the historically Black college adopted in 2020. Since going test-optional, Morehouse has seen an increased number of applicants and an increased acceptance rate from admitted students, said Michael Gumm, Morehouse’s director of admissions and recruitment.

The majority of Morehouse applicants choose not to submit scores, Gumm said, and more students are completing their applications than in the past. He said Morehouse is looking for leaders, so essays and letters of recommendation carry a lot of weight.

Gumm said he often preaches to students: “Your test scores do not make you who you are.”

But for some students, the tests remain a priority. Alina Bunch, a 16-year-old high school junior in Texas, said that even when she saw schools dropping test requirements, she never altered her plan to take the ACT. The exam, she says, is a way to demonstrate determination and academic rigor.

She thinks it’s generally a good thing that schools are bringing back testing requirements, because they can function as a mechanism of standardization in a sometimes subjective admissions process. She does fear the effects of reinstating test requirements for students who cannot afford tutoring.

But for herself — after taking a summer course to prepare for the ACT and scoring high on the exam — she has no real worries. “It was never a question for me, of whether I should do it or not,” Alina said.

Many students pursued similar strategies, continuing to take standardized tests throughout the test-optional trend. After a dramatic drop in 2020 spurred by the sudden closure of test sites, the number of students taking the SAT nationally has risen every year since, per the College Board, and reached 1.9 million for the class of 2023. That’s about 300,000 short of the last pre-pandemic total, when 2.2 million members of the class of 2019 sat for the exam — the largest-ever group to do so.

Joan Koven, who heads college consulting company Academic Access in Pennsylvania, said she never expected standardized testing to suffer a real drop in popularity.

“The ACTs and the SATs are Burger King and McDonald’s,” she said. “They’re not going away.”

But in some places, counselors wish they would. Priscilla Grijalva, a high school counselor in California’s San Jacinto Unified School District, said the elimination of test requirements in the UC system and California State University campuses was a godsend for the nearly 300 students she works with every year, a mix of White, Black and Latino teens, most of whom are socioeconomically disadvantaged.

In the past, many of her students applied only to community colleges. But now she has seen a sharp rise in those willing to aim for state universities.

“It has changed our students’ mindsets,” Grijalva said. “Now it’s like, ‘Hey, I can do this.’ They’re more confident in their leadership and their grades.”

But the flurry of recent announcements from schools altering their testing rules has proved alarming, she said. Her students “do feel the pressure coming back,” she said. “They’re starting to talk.”

Claire Elkin, 16, overheard some of this nervous chatter when she was touring colleges this spring with her family — making visits to places including the University of Virginia, Vanderbilt University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. At every school, recalled Claire, who took the ACT and intends to submit her scores, admissions tour leaders said something like: “Yeah, we’re test-optional now, but we can’t guarantee anything for you.”

Every time, the crowds of hopefuls around Claire broke into murmurs that ranged from anguished to angry, she said. She remembered one family whose daughters seemed especially upset, spurring the mother to jump into emergency action trying to calm the girls as the admissions presentation continued.

“A lot of kids my age can’t set a path right now for what they should be prioritizing when they’re applying for schools,” Claire said. “So there is definitely more panic.”

An earlier version of this article included incorrect information about the rise in the number of students who have taken the SAT since a drop sparked by the pandemic. The number of students taking the test reached 1.9 million for the class of 2023, about 300,000 fewer than for the class of 2019. The article has been corrected.

Editorial: Why it’s smart for universities to bring back the SAT requirement

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The SAT and ACT are making a small but important comeback after the tests were widely dropped as a requirement for college applications during the pandemic.

Most schools went test-optional, meaning students could submit scores if they wanted but not doing so wouldn’t count against them. The University of California won’t consider test scores at all.

Only a handful of schools have resurrected the testing requirement, but among them are heavyweights in the world of higher education: MIT, Dartmouth and Georgetown. Most recently, the University of Texas at Austin and Brown University joined the list and the University of North Carolina is considering it . Yale also will require standardized test scores, but tests such as Advanced Placement can be used in place of college entrance exams.

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Additional competitive schools are likely to join the group, along with schools that aren’t as selective. The University of Tennessee, which accepts 68% of applicants, decided a year and a half ago to bring the tests back .

The tests were criticized long before the pandemic as giving an unfair boost to more affluent students who could afford tutoring. And it’s true that scores are closely correlated with family income. But the pause in testing gave colleges a chance to study the issue more closely. They found that SAT scores were extremely effective at predicting whether students would succeed in college.

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No one should be surprised. The University of California convened a panel several years ago to study the issue at length and it reached the same conclusion . The standardized tests were more equitable than grades, the panel said, because grade inflation is more pervasive at affluent schools. Yet UC refuses to consider test scores, after bowing to pressure from critics. We hope that the trend toward reinstating the tests in admissions makes UC leaders rethink this position.

Making the tests optional was actually counterproductive, Dartmouth, Yale and Brown found. Their applicant pools became less diverse, because low-income students and students of color were less likely to apply even if they had good test scores, thinking they hadn’t tested well enough.

The whole debate has sadly ignored the bigger factors perpetuating the uneven playing field of college admissions. Yes, rich students can receive SAT tutoring, and it helps, though only a little. The most rigorous study of the topic found that tutoring could raise scores by about 20 points.

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Meanwhile, some aspects of college admission tilt the field in favor of wealthier students more than test scores do. For example, teachers at more affluent schools have more time for writing letters of recommendation for college applications than teachers at low-income schools.

Athletes continue to get the upper hand on acceptance , and not just in commonly played games like football and soccer that most students have access to in high school. Golf, equestrian, fencing, gymnastics and crew are among the sports that require families to pay for their children to participate, and those athletes also get preferential treatment in college admissions.

Essays can be coached, heavily edited or even written by college consultants for a fee. A 2021 study at Stanford University found that the quality of essay content was closely correlated with family income among University of California applicants. Yet UC kept the essays and got rid of the tests.

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There is nothing inherently evil about the SAT or ACT. It all depends on how they’re used. They can act as a reality check — a student who didn’t get great grades might show a lot of potential in the test scores, and vice versa. And, as UC did before it scrapped the tests , colleges should consider the scores in context, such as, is this the best score in a generally low-scoring high school? A score might reflect the education at that school, not the student’s aptitude for college work.

These latest changes also point to a larger problem in admissions at selective colleges: Every school seemingly wants different things. Some want high SAT scores, others care more about AP exams, and others don’t want any standardized test scores. Some enhance grade-point averages depending on how tough the courses are, others don’t, and others in just some cases.

Of course, schools have a right to seek out the students who will fit best at their institution. But the lack of transparency and consistency has given rise to a nearly $3-billion-a-year industry of pricey college-admissions consultants.

Talk about tilting the playing field.

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Ultimate Guide to the New SAT Writing and Language Test

Is your SAT score enough to get you into your dream school?

Our free chancing engine takes into consideration your SAT score, in addition to other profile factors, such as GPA and extracurriculars. Create a free account to discover your chances at hundreds of different schools.

Originally developed over a century ago, the SAT is designed to measure career and college readiness. It has been adapted over the years to reflect current standards and emphases in American education, with its most recent change taking place in 2016.

Anytime something as significant as the SAT changes, a small adjustment period is required. Students, parents, teachers, and test prep experts have stepped back, evaluated the new test format and content, and fine-tuned their preparation methods to meet the standards of an evolving assessment. To learn more about the most significant changes on the SAT, read CollegeVine’s A Guide to the New SAT or review Khan Academy’s video overview of Content Changes to the New SAT .    

Over the past six months, the SAT experts here at CollegeVine have been analyzing the new test and evaluating materials and data from the College Board, Khan Academy, and private sources. We’ve dug deep into the new SAT, and now we’re ready to share some of our findings with you here.

The SAT Writing and Language Test is one of two components of the Evidence-Based Reading and Writing portion of your SAT. This section replaces the Critical Reading Test and Writing Test from the previous iteration of the SAT. The new Writing and Language test takes place at a much quicker pace than the previous test’s version, with just 35 minutes allowed to complete 44 questions. The new test also places a greater emphasis on the meaning of words in extended contexts and on how word choice shapes the meaning, tone, and impact of a written piece.

To learn more, read on for the CollegeVine ultimate guide to the new SAT Writing and Language Test.

What is the format of the new SAT Writing and Language Test?

The new SAT Writing and Language Test consists of 44 multiple-choice questions that you’ll need to answer in 35 minutes. This is a big change from the prior version of the SAT Writing test, which consisted of 49 questions but allowed a full 60 minutes to complete them.

All of the questions on the new Writing and Language Test are based on written passages. There are four written passages on the test, each between 400-450 words. Some passages are accompanied by informational graphics, like tables, graphs, or charts, but no math will be required on this portion of the test. The passages on the exam will consist of one non-fiction narrative passage, one to two informative/explanatory texts, and one to two argumentative or persuasive pieces.

The passages on the Writing and Language Test will be presented alongside the associated questions, with the passages presented in the left-hand column and the questions presented in the right-hand column. Question numbers will be embedded in the text of the passage as well to help you locate the associated text. There may also be other forms of notation, including underlining, which will help to guide you to what part of the passage is being tested at any given point. Some questions may also ask about the passage as a whole.

Unlike on the new SAT Reading Test, passages used on the Writing and Language Test are always developed specifically for use on the test.

What does the new SAT assess?

The new SAT Writing and Language Test assesses your ability to do the three things that you should already be doing and will continue to do in college when you write and edit:

• Read and interpret
• Find mistakes and weaknesses
• Fix or improve them

More specifically, you will be expected to demonstrate your knowledge and ability in the following content areas:

Command of Evidence: Demonstrating your command of evidence requires you to show your ability to improve the way that passages develop information. You’ll demonstrate that you know how to build an argument, add relevant supporting details, and sharpen evidence that has already been used.

Words in Context: These questions will ask you to improve word choice, choose the best words based on greater context, or use word choice to make a passage more precise or concise. You may also be asked to consider word choice as it relates to syntax, style, or tone.

Analysis in History/Social Studies and in Science: These questions will ask you to critically read informational texts and make editorial decisions to improve them. You might need to clarify sequence, improve precision of data reported, or better relate a passage to an associated informational graphic.

Expression of Ideas: The questions assessing your expression of ideas will challenge you to think about a passage’s overall organization, impact, and flow. You will be tasked with changing words or structure to improve the strength of the passage and how its sentences and paragraphs work together.

Standard English Conventions: Finally, a large part of the test will assess your knowledge of Standard English Conventions. This includes sentence structure, usage, and punctuation. You will need to change words, clauses, sentences and punctuation to ensure that they conform to common grammar rules. You’ll also edit for verb tense, parallel sentence construction, subject-verb agreement, and comma use.

As you study the content areas above, keep in mind how heavily each is weighted. You can expect to see 24 questions assessing your expression of ideas, 20 questions assessing your grasp of Standard English Conventions, and eight questions each assessing your command of evidence and use of words in context. Some questions will assess more than one content area at a time.

To see how the new SAT Writing and Language content compares to the content on the PSAT, see the Writing and Language content alignment chart .

What are some key strategies for the new SAT?

1. know where to look in the text to answer your question.

This is the easiest way of making sure that you maximize your efficiency on the test and it’s fairly simple to master. All questions will be printed and numbered in the right-hand column of the test alongside the passage, which is printed in the left-hand column.

For most questions referring to a specific place in the text, the number will also appear in the passage itself, embedded in the text to help you locate it. For example, consider the excerpt below taken from an official College Board SAT Writing and Language practice exam . 

Note that in this case, the portion of text to which question number 13 refers is highlighted by the preceding 13 in the passage itself, with the subsequent underlined selection clarifying exactly which words you should consider modifying for the question (If you’re wondering, the correct answer is “A,” because it most concisely combines the two sentences while maintaining their original meaning).    

Question 14 in the example above is slightly different. It does not ask an explicit question but instead simply embeds the question number before the associated, underlined text. Although it is not explicitly stated as the question, the answer choices are possible replacements for the underlined text.

Your job on a question such as this is to choose the best alternate-word choice for this text. If you believe that the best word choice is already printed in the passage, you would choose the answer “A) NO CHANGE.” (If you’re following along, the correct answer to question 14 is “B,” because it contains the conjunctive adverb “however,” which most accurately indicates the contrasting relationship between the two sentences.)

By knowing how to interpret the questions and where to find the text they refer to, you will be one step ahead on test day. Just make sure to practice using official practice tests so that you can ensure the directions given on your practice test are exactly the same as those given on the real SAT.

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2. Know the purpose of the passage you’re reading

There are many different styles of writing and the stylistic choices made by an author will always depend on the purpose of the written piece. For example, articles that are written to teach or inform will not include opinions and will only rarely include vague word choices such as perhaps or mostly . On the other hand, persuasive essays will include stronger word choices to build strong, convincing arguments. Personal narratives will often include words to elicit emotion.

To be an effective editor, you will need to identify the purpose of the passage you’re reading at the very beginning. This knowledge should help to guide you as you progress through the editing process. More formal passages, such as scientific articles written to inform, will require more formal word choices and style, while first-person narratives will often be more colloquial   in nature. When selecting an alternate word choice or phrase, read the sentence in context with the sentence before and after to make sure that it fits with the overall tone. 

3. Know how to interpret informational graphics

This is another fairly simple way to ensure that you don’t miss points for something you could have mastered before the test. The informational graphics included on the SAT Writing and Language Test will always be fairly straightforward in that they will never test your math skills. Instead, they will assess your ability to make sense of information presented graphically.

These informational graphics could be graphs, tables, figures, or maps. Familiarize yourself with these by finding them in context in your school textbooks, magazines and newspapers, and of course practice SAT exams. The example below shows a graph included in the Writing and Language portion of an official College Board practice test.

Note that the graph itself is not complex. The variables and axes are clearly labeled, and the title gives a very specific indication of the graph’s content. The answer choices simply propose some common errors that you might make in interpreting the graph.

To answer this question, first look in the passage to determine what it’s asking. In this case, the question is essentially asking you to identify the lowest that the average daily low temperature falls. By using the key, you can see that the solid line, not the dotted line, denotes average daily lows, so immediately you can discard any values derived from the average daily high-dotted line. Of the remaining options, the only one that includes accurate data from the graph is “B) to 12 degrees Fahrenheit,” which is the correct answer.

4. Answer questions as you’re reading

This is primarily a time-saving tip, so if you are a particularly fast reader or have found that you work better when reading the piece all the way through and have no problem with the time constraints, then feel free to use another method that works best for you. However, our experience is that the SAT Writing and Language Test is a particularly time-crunched one. Remember, you have only 35 minutes to read four passages and answer 44 related questions.

Luckily, the passages and questions are designed to make it easy to answer questions as you read. Questions are sequenced in order of appearance and the questions and associated passage text are always printed alongside, even when it means breaking up the passage between multiple pages. Any questions that relate to the passage as a whole will come at the end of the passage.

As such, the side-by-side format is extremely conducive to answering questions as you come across them. Reading the entire passage, split across multiple pages, and then going back to answer questions and re-read specific text for each one is inefficient and could cost you precious time better spent on checking your work.    

5. Brush up on common grammar rules and English conventions

There are not many content areas on the Evidence-Based Reading and Writing portion of the SAT that benefit from explicit rote memorization, but Standard English Conventions are one of them. This includes things like subject-verb agreement, punctuation, phrase-subject agreement, clauses, and pronouns. Remember, almost half of the questions in this section will test your knowledge of these rules. Basically, you need to become a grammar fiend.

To do this, buy a grammar review book, check out the SAT grammar tutorials on Quizlet , and head over to the grammar review resources on Khan Academy . 

6. Practice: read, write, and edit as much as possible

Writing and editing are skills that develop over time with repeated exposure and experience. They are not skills that can be learned in isolation or crammed for the night before the test.

The easiest and best way to build these skills is by starting well ahead of time with lots of practice. The good news is, if you’re in high school, you are probably doing this already. Read, write, and edit as much as possible. Read the newspaper and magazines. Read textbooks. Write for all of your classes, even if only a chapter summary. Edit your own work, edit your friends’ work, edit text you come across on the Internet.

When you receive written work back from your teachers, instead of looking at your grade and then cramming it into your backpack, review each and every edit your teacher made. If there are any that you don’t understand, ask a friend or your teacher to explain them to you. Immerse yourself in reading, writing, and editing so that when you encounter it on the test, it’s already second nature.  

Where can I find free study materials? 

To kick off your studying, take the CollegeVine free diagnostic SAT with customized score report and action-plan help to get a better idea of where you’re starting from and the direction that your studying should take you.

The College Board Student SAT Study Guide is another great place to start to get an overview of the test and the topics you can expect to find on it. You’ll also see a breakdown of scoring and SAT subscores to help guide your studying.

The College Board also maintains a Daily Practice SAT app that provides daily test questions, answer hints, and answer explanations. Another cool feature is its Scan And Score option, which enables you to use your phone’s camera to scan your practice-test answer sheets and submit them for automatic scoring.

In addition, Khan Academy provides a number of study materials including study tips and video tutorials .

Once you’ve spent some time learning the material, put it to use on some College Board sample questions or a full-length practice test .

Preparing for the SAT? Download our  free guide with our top 8 tips for mastering the SAT.

To learn more about the SAT, check out these CollegeVine posts:

• ACT vs SAT/SAT Subject Tests
• Are PSAT Scores Related to SAT Scores?
• What Should I Bring to My SAT?
• A Guide to the New SAT
• The CollegeVine Guide to SAT Scores: All Your Questions Answered
• How to Register For Your SATs

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Trump is on the verge of a windfall of billions of dollars. Here are 3 things to know

Former President Trump stands to win over $3 billion after his social media company goes public — but he may not be able to cash in immediately. Win McNamee/Getty Images hide caption

Former President Trump stands to win over $3 billion after his social media company goes public — but he may not be able to cash in immediately.

Former President Trump is on the verge of a windfall of billions of dollars — but it may not come soon enough to help him fend off his mounting legal problems.

Trump stands to make over $3 billion as the company behind his social media platform Truth Social — Trump Media and Technology Group — goes public.

Here's what happens if Trump can't pay his $454 million bond

Trump Media is accomplishing that by merging with an existing shell company called Digital World Acquisition Corp. It's a process that allows a company to bypass all the hoops of a traditional initial public offering.

Digital World shareholders formally approved the merger with Trump Media on Friday.

But the process of listing Trump Media has been a rather convoluted saga, much like the business and political career of the former president, marked by investigations, lawsuits and general chaos.

Here are three things to know about how Trump stands to earn billions of dollars.

All eyes are on the Digital World shareholders

The vote by Digital World shareholders should be simple.

If the shareholders of the shell company do approve the deal, Digital World would become Trump Media in the stock markets as early as next week, trading under the stock symbol DJT, short for Donald J. Trump.

But Digital World has struggled to find enough shareholders to show up in previous key votes, so there are no guarantees that they can get enough of a quorum on Friday to approve the merger.

And the process to this point has been far from easy in other ways. Digital World has also faced scrutiny from the Securities and Exchange Commission, and it has also faced lawsuits from key shareholders that are still pending

Trump stands to earn billions

If enough Digital World shareholders approve the deal, the windfall for Trump could be big.

Trump would own over 50% of the new merged company, a stake that would be worth over $3 billion at current market valuations.

Analysts agree those kinds of valuations are far removed from the actual value of Trump Media. Truth Social had just over $3 million in revenue in the first nine months of last year and losses of nearly $50 million.

But a lot of the value comes from the hundreds of thousands of rabid Trump supporters who have bought into Digital World in anticipation of the merger with Trump media.

And that's why the stock is widely seen as a "meme stock," meaning shares that are driven by the whims of individual investors and not for any fundamental factors.

Stock markets have seen clear examples of this in recent years, like retailer Gamestop or movie chain AMC, both of which have caught Wall Street by storm by experiencing spectacular rallies during the pandemic.

Jay Ritter, Cordell professor of finance at the University of Florida says Digital World is not much different from the craze that enveloped those two stocks.

"This is largely a meme stock where the price is divorced from the fundamental value of the company," he says.

Trump Media, the company behind Truth Social, could be valued at billions of dollars when it goes public, even if analysts believe the valuations are well above its financial fundamentals. Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Trump Media, the company behind Truth Social, could be valued at billions of dollars when it goes public, even if analysts believe the valuations are well above its financial fundamentals.

There are professional investors, too, looking for opportunities to profit from the deal. Take Matthew Tuttle, chief executive of Tuttle Capital Management.

"While fundamentally. I don't get it, I'm going to trade it because it's going to move," Tuttle says. "It's going to have a rabid following and it's going to be a fun stock."

But Trump might not be able to sell his shares soon

The potential windfall comes at a time when Trump is in dire need of cash.

On Monday he needs to post over $400 million in bond to settle a civil fraud case , and Trump has been unable to secure a company to put up the cash.

However, how soon the former president can cash in on his stake in Trump Media is uncertain.

Under the current agreement, Trump faces a six-month lock-up period, meaning he won't be able to sell his shares in Trump Media during that period.

He could, however, try to work out a deal that would allow him to sell some or all of his holdings earlier, though a big sale at once would risk sending Trump Media shares sharply lower.

Trump could also try to find somebody who would loan him the money using his Trump Media shares as collateral.

But the Trump Media shares would be trading at above what many analysts think it's actually worth, making it difficult for a lender to justify lending him the money.

Then again, this is former President Trump, as Tuttle notes.

"All I know," Tuttle says. "Whenever Trump is involved in something, I think you got to assume to expect the unexpected."

• truth social

What to know about the crisis of violence, politics and hunger engulfing Haiti

A long-simmering crisis over Haiti’s ability to govern itself, particularly after a series of natural disasters and an increasingly dire humanitarian emergency, has come to a head in the Caribbean nation, as its de facto president remains stranded in Puerto Rico and its people starve and live in fear of rampant violence. 

The chaos engulfing the country has been bubbling for more than a year, only for it to spill over on the global stage on Monday night, as Haiti’s unpopular prime minister, Ariel Henry, agreed to resign once a transitional government is brokered by other Caribbean nations and parties, including the U.S.

But the very idea of a transitional government brokered not by Haitians but by outsiders is one of the main reasons Haiti, a nation of 11 million, is on the brink, according to humanitarian workers and residents who have called for Haitian-led solutions. 

“What we’re seeing in Haiti has been building since the 2010 earthquake,” said Greg Beckett, an associate professor of anthropology at Western University in Canada. 

What is happening in Haiti and why?

In the power vacuum that followed the assassination of democratically elected President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, Henry, who was prime minister under Moïse, assumed power, with the support of several nations, including the U.S. 

When Haiti failed to hold elections multiple times — Henry said it was due to logistical problems or violence — protests rang out against him. By the time Henry announced last year that elections would be postponed again, to 2025, armed groups that were already active in Port-au-Prince, the capital, dialed up the violence.

Even before Moïse’s assassination, these militias and armed groups existed alongside politicians who used them to do their bidding, including everything from intimidating the opposition to collecting votes . With the dwindling of the country’s elected officials, though, many of these rebel forces have engaged in excessively violent acts, and have taken control of at least 80% of the capital, according to a United Nations estimate. 

Those groups, which include paramilitary and former police officers who pose as community leaders, have been responsible for the increase in killings, kidnappings and rapes since Moïse’s death, according to the Uppsala Conflict Data Program at Uppsala University in Sweden. According to a report from the U.N . released in January, more than 8,400 people were killed, injured or kidnapped in 2023, an increase of 122% increase from 2022.

“January and February have been the most violent months in the recent crisis, with thousands of people killed, or injured, or raped,” Beckett said.

Armed groups who had been calling for Henry’s resignation have already attacked airports, police stations, sea ports, the Central Bank and the country’s national soccer stadium. The situation reached critical mass earlier this month when the country’s two main prisons were raided , leading to the escape of about 4,000 prisoners. The beleaguered government called a 72-hour state of emergency, including a night-time curfew — but its authority had evaporated by then.

Aside from human-made catastrophes, Haiti still has not fully recovered from the devastating earthquake in 2010 that killed about 220,000 people and left 1.5 million homeless, many of them living in poorly built and exposed housing. More earthquakes, hurricanes and floods have followed, exacerbating efforts to rebuild infrastructure and a sense of national unity.

Since the earthquake, “there have been groups in Haiti trying to control that reconstruction process and the funding, the billions of dollars coming into the country to rebuild it,” said Beckett, who specializes in the Caribbean, particularly Haiti. 

Beckett said that control initially came from politicians and subsequently from armed groups supported by those politicians. Political “parties that controlled the government used the government for corruption to steal that money. We’re seeing the fallout from that.”

Many armed groups have formed in recent years claiming to be community groups carrying out essential work in underprivileged neighborhoods, but they have instead been accused of violence, even murder . One of the two main groups, G-9, is led by a former elite police officer, Jimmy Chérizier — also known as “Barbecue” — who has become the public face of the unrest and claimed credit for various attacks on public institutions. He has openly called for Henry to step down and called his campaign an “armed revolution.”

But caught in the crossfire are the residents of Haiti. In just one week, 15,000 people have been displaced from Port-au-Prince, according to a U.N. estimate. But people have been trying to flee the capital for well over a year, with one woman telling NBC News that she is currently hiding in a church with her three children and another family with eight children. The U.N. said about 160,000 people have left Port-au-Prince because of the swell of violence in the last several months. 

Deep poverty and famine are also a serious danger. Gangs have cut off access to the country’s largest port, Autorité Portuaire Nationale, and food could soon become scarce.

Haiti's uncertain future

A new transitional government may dismay the Haitians and their supporters who call for Haitian-led solutions to the crisis. 

But the creation of such a government would come after years of democratic disruption and the crumbling of Haiti’s political leadership. The country hasn’t held an election in eight years. 

Haitian advocates and scholars like Jemima Pierre, a professor at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, say foreign intervention, including from the U.S., is partially to blame for Haiti’s turmoil. The U.S. has routinely sent thousands of troops to Haiti , intervened in its government and supported unpopular leaders like Henry.

“What you have over the last 20 years is the consistent dismantling of the Haitian state,” Pierre said. “What intervention means for Haiti, what it has always meant, is death and destruction.”

In fact, the country’s situation was so dire that Henry was forced to travel abroad in the hope of securing a U.N. peacekeeping deal. He went to Kenya, which agreed to send 1,000 troops to coordinate an East African and U.N.-backed alliance to help restore order in Haiti, but the plan is now on hold . Kenya agreed last October to send a U.N.-sanctioned security force to Haiti, but Kenya’s courts decided it was unconstitutional. The result has been Haiti fending for itself. 

“A force like Kenya, they don’t speak Kreyòl, they don’t speak French,” Pierre said. “The Kenyan police are known for human rights abuses . So what does it tell us as Haitians that the only thing that you see that we deserve are not schools, not reparations for the cholera the U.N. brought , but more military with the mandate to use all kinds of force on our population? That is unacceptable.”  

Henry was forced to announce his planned resignation from Puerto Rico, as threats of violence — and armed groups taking over the airports — have prevented him from returning to his country.  

Now that Henry is to stand down, it is far from clear what the armed groups will do or demand next, aside from the right to govern. 

“It’s the Haitian people who know what they’re going through. It’s the Haitian people who are going to take destiny into their own hands. Haitian people will choose who will govern them,” Chérizier said recently, according to The Associated Press .

Haitians and their supporters have put forth their own solutions over the years, holding that foreign intervention routinely ignores the voices and desires of Haitians. 

In 2021, both Haitian and non-Haitian church leaders, women’s rights groups, lawyers, humanitarian workers, the Voodoo Sector and more created the Commission to Search for a Haitian Solution to the Crisis . The commission has proposed the “ Montana Accord ,” outlining a two-year interim government with oversight committees tasked with restoring order, eradicating corruption and establishing fair elections. 

For more from NBC BLK, sign up for our weekly newsletter .

CORRECTION (March 15, 2024, 9:58 a.m. ET): An earlier version of this article misstated which university Jemima Pierre is affiliated with. She is a professor at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, not the University of California, Los Angeles, (or Columbia University, as an earlier correction misstated).

Patrick Smith is a London-based editor and reporter for NBC News Digital.

Char Adams is a reporter for NBC BLK who writes about race.

Choose Your Test

Sat / act prep online guides and tips, which colleges require the sat essay complete list.

SAT Logistics , SAT Essay

Planning to take the SAT? Before you sign up, you need to decide whether you're going to take the test with or without the optional Essay . How should you pick? Well, some colleges require that you apply with the SAT with Essay; others don't care whether you submit an SAT score with or without the Essay.

In this article, I'll provide you with a complete list of colleges that require or recommend taking the SAT with the Essay .

UPDATE: SAT Essay No Longer Offered

In January 2021, the College Board announced that after June 2021, it would no longer offer the Essay portion of the SAT (except at schools who opt in during School Day Testing). It is now no longer possible to take the SAT Essay, unless your school is one of the small number who choose to offer it during SAT School Day Testing.

While most colleges had already made SAT Essay scores optional, this move by the College Board means no colleges now require the SAT Essay. It will also likely lead to additional college application changes such not looking at essay scores at all for the SAT or ACT, as well as potentially requiring additional writing samples for placement.

What does the end of the SAT Essay mean for your college applications? Check out our article on the College Board's SAT Essay decision for everything you need to know.

What Is the Optional SAT Essay?

The redesigned SAT debuted in March 2016 with a now-optional Essay section. For the Essay, you have 50 minutes to read a passage (similar to those you see on the Reading section ) and write an essay dissecting how the author made the argument . Did the author use evidence to support the main claim? Appeals to emotion? Specific word choice?

If you take the SAT without Essay, the test length is three hours . However, if you take the SAT with Essay, the optional Essay adds 50 minutes . It also costs more to take the SAT with Essay : $64.50 vs $49.50 without the Essay.

Don't automatically assume you must take the Essay. Whether it's important for you depends on which schools (and scholarships) you're applying to and what the rest of your application looks like. I'll go into more depth later about how to decide which version of the SAT to take.

List of Schools That Require the SAT With Essay

Below, I've compiled a list of colleges that require or recommend taking the SAT with Essay. All data comes from the College Board and some individual schools we consulted separately.

Note: This list is subject to change, so make sure to double-check with each school you're applying to.

Surprisingly (and in contrast to how it's been in the past), top schools mostly do not require the SAT essay . Currently, no Ivy League School requires students to take the SAT with Essay; the same is true for Stanford, Caltech, Duke, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Northwestern, NYU, and UChicago. Many of these schools no longer even recommend students to take the SAT with Essay, which is a huge turnaround from just a couple of years ago.

Similarly, most liberal arts colleges do not require or recommend the SAT with Essay ; however, there are some exceptions, such as Soka University, which does require it.

In general, most state schools also do not require the SAT with Essay, though there's still a significant portion that do. There tends to be some weird variance even within states. For example, all University of California schools require the SAT with Essay, but most of the California State University schools do not.

Regardless of the types of schools you're applying to, don't assume that they all ask for the SAT with Essay . Check with every school to make sure you understand their testing requirements.

How to Decide Whether to Take the SAT Essay: 4 Questions

When making your decision about whether to take the SAT with Essay or the SAT without Essay, you'll need to consider the following four questions.

#1: Do Any Schools I Want to Apply to Require the SAT Essay?

If you're applying to any school that requires the Essay, then you must take the SAT with Essay . If you take the SAT without Essay, your application will be incomplete and you won't get admitted. By contrast, if you apply to any schools that don't require the SAT Essay, you can still take the SAT with Essay since these schools will accept both types of SAT scores (with or without Essay).

To reiterate, colleges that require the SAT Essay won't consider your score if you took the SAT without the Essay . The last thing you want to do is take the SAT without the Essay and get a good score—but then find out that one of your target schools requires you to take the SAT with Essay.

Remember that some colleges change their application policies from year to year, so make sure to double-check the testing policies of the schools you're applying to .

#2: Do Any Schools I Want to Apply to Recommend the SAT Essay?

If you're not applying to any schools that require the SAT Essay section but are applying to some that recommend it, then I'd still suggest taking it . This gives you another dimension schools can use to evaluate your application; however, there are some cases in which you shouldn't take the SAT with Essay.

If, for some reason, you do not qualify for SAT fee waivers and paying the extra cost to take the SAT with Essay would be a financial burden to you , then please don't feel as if you have to take it. In this case, it's fine to take the SAT without Essay instead.

In addition, if you really struggle to write essays under time constraints (due to anxiety), you might want to opt out of the Essay . That said, I only recommend this for students who normally have strong English and writing skills but struggle to write coherent essays when there's the added pressure of a time constraint.

For example, do you get As on essays you can work on at home but Cs on in-class essays because you get easily nervous? If that's the case, taking the SAT with Essay might not be a good idea.

#3: Am I Applying to Any Scholarships That Require an SAT With Essay Score?

Many scholarships (such as National Merit ) require you to submit SAT scores , and some specifically want SAT with Essay scores.

Therefore, be sure to check the requirements of each scholarship you're planning on applying for . While scholarships that don't require or recommend the SAT Essay should still accept your SAT with Essay score, scholarships that require the Essay section will not consider your SAT score if you took the no-essay version .

#4: Will the SAT Essay Enhance My Application in Other Ways?

Generally speaking, taking the SAT Essay if it's not required won't add a lot to your application. In truth, colleges that don't recommend or require the Essay really don't pay much attention to it.

Nevertheless, the Essay might be helpful for international students who want to prove they have strong English skills and who think they'll do especially well on it. If you fall into this category and feel confident you'll get a high score on it ( after doing practice essays , for example), definitely consider taking the SAT with Essay.

On the other hand, if you don't think you'll do well on the Essay, I recommend against taking it.

What's Next?

Need help preparing for the SAT? Read our ultimate study guide to get expert tips on prep and access to the best free online resources. If you're taking the test soon, learn how to cram for the SAT .

Want to learn more about the SAT Essay? Check out our step-by-step guide to writing a great essay .

Not sure where you want to go to college? Learn how to do college research right and figure out your SAT target score .

Ready to go beyond just reading about the SAT? Then you'll love the free five-day trial for our SAT Complete Prep program . Designed and written by PrepScholar SAT experts , our SAT program customizes to your skill level in over 40 subskills so that you can focus your studying on what will get you the biggest score gains.

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As an SAT/ACT tutor, Dora has guided many students to test prep success. She loves watching students succeed and is committed to helping you get there. Dora received a full-tuition merit based scholarship to University of Southern California. She graduated magna cum laude and scored in the 99th percentile on the ACT. She is also passionate about acting, writing, and photography.

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The Newest Tech Start-Up Billionaire? Donald Trump.

Trump media, which went public this week, attracted a frenzy of interest on its first day of trading..

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Over the past few years, Donald Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social, has been dismissed as a money-losing boondoggle.

This week, that all changed. Matthew Goldstein, a New York Times business reporter, explains how its parent venture, Truth Media, became a publicly traded company worth billions of dollars.

On today’s episode

Matthew Goldstein , a New York Times business reporter.

Background reading

What to know about Trump Media’s high-flying stock debut .

Ethics experts say the publicly traded company could present a new way for foreign actors or others to influence Mr. Trump , if he is elected president.

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We aim to make transcripts available the next workday after an episode’s publication. You can find them at the top of the page.

The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Sydney Harper, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky, John Ketchum, Nina Feldman, Will Reid, Carlos Prieto, Ben Calhoun, Susan Lee, Lexie Diao, Mary Wilson, Alex Stern, Dan Farrell, Sophia Lanman, Shannon Lin, Diane Wong, Devon Taylor, Alyssa Moxley, Summer Thomad, Olivia Natt, Daniel Ramirez and Brendan Klinkenberg.

Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Paula Szuchman, Lisa Tobin, Larissa Anderson, Julia Simon, Sofia Milan, Mahima Chablani, Elizabeth Davis-Moorer, Jeffrey Miranda, Renan Borelli, Maddy Masiello, Isabella Anderson and Nina Lassam.

Matthew Goldstein covers Wall Street and white-collar crime and housing issues. More about Matthew Goldstein

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