Thanks passthepotatoes--yes, the immediate need is to improve SAT writing scores--he's actually going to take the ACT writing for the first time next month as well.

Cricket2--yes, he took SATs recently and his essay score was lower than when he was in the talent search 3 yrs ago and didn't even try hard. He has hopes of applying to one or two colleges that are tough to get into, so he'll need to work on improving that score.