rajshas - great questions - people are often dismissive of the AWA but that's a mistake! The fact that they ditched one of the two AWA essays in order to add the I/R portion does indicate that the AWA isn't that important compared to other components of the GMAT, but that does not mean it's UN-important!
We actually wrote a post on the EssaySnark blahg about this quite recently:
https://www.essaysnark.com/2012/07/the-a ... e-matters/
To also address the issues you raised:
- your AWA doesn't matter at all in terms of which bschools you should select. None of the schools even report their average student AWA.
- the AWA doesn't factor into your total score; it works like the I/R, it's calculated and reported separately
- if you're a non-native English speaker, then the adcom will cut you some slack on the AWA, but a score below 5.0 is a tiny bit troublesome for anyone (see that post we just referenced).
When picking schools, focus on your career goals as the primary criteria for what school will help you, and also take into account your personal preferences like region, urban/rural school etc. Then examine their 80% ranges on total GMAT score to see if your stats fit their student profile.
Hope this helps!!
EssaySnark
