thegradstudent

I discovered some interesting information in the past month or so that I thought would be helpful to pass along. I’ve always wondered how much General GRE scores matter to graduate admissions committees and what kind of scores they want or demand. I was never able to get a straight answer until a professor (and former admissions committee member) led an information session on applying to grad schools and solved part of the GRE mystery. Here’s what I discovered from her and other sources.

Verbal Section

First, the magic number for the verbal section is 700. I had heard rumors to that effect before, but thanks to the info session I now know why. The department will look at your GRE scores with interest but they’re much more focused on your letters, grades, and writing sample. The graduate school at large, however, cares about scores. I imagine it’s because (1) scores are an objective measure that they understand more than your groundbreaking and eloquent arguments about T. S. Eliot and (2) they impact school rankings. Essentially if the dean or committee or whatever of the graduate school sees an accepted applicant with a GRE Verbal score below their cutoff, which is apparently almost always 700, they will send the application back to the department with a big red question mark. The department can certainly defend their choice – pointing out exceptional writing and a high GPA for example – and push the applicant through. You need to give them enough to work with in negotiations, however, and the department has to want to go through this extra work on your behalf, meaning that if you score below 700 the rest of your file better be really impressive. If there are two comparable applicants and one scored a 690 and the other a 710 the department is probably going to choose the one that won’t necessitate haggling with higherups. A perfect or very high verbal score will certainly get everyone’s attention and help your application, but the most important thing is to just hit that 700 mark and then focus on the rest of the application. *Note* however, that occasionally a school lists its own cutoff for GRE scores. This is rare and the cutoff is usually 700, but consult each website carefully just in case.

Writing Section

I haven’t gotten official word on this section, but it stands to reason that if you’re applying to an English program you should demonstrate exceptional writing ability, and if you’re applying elsewhere in the humanities you should  still have a pretty high score. I wouldn’t panic if you have a 5.5 instead of a perfect 6, since after all the admissions committee has a much longer sample of your writing abilities on their hands. If you bomb the writing section, however, I would take the test again (and “bombing” for English applicants is probably anything below a 5).

Quantitative Reasoning Section:

When I initially applied I was told that English programs don’t even look at the Math section of the GRE, in fact there are a few programs that don’t even ask for it. I’ve since overheard professors talking about the issue, however, and have discovered that (at least at my institution) a very high math score will significantly help your application. The department likes well-rounded candidates who demonstrate high abilities in logic and reasoning. That said, most applicants aren’t stellar math students, and they don’t have to be in order to succeed, so a mediocre score isn’t going to raise any eyebrows. It seems that math scores only receive notice if they fall at either extreme: an 800 will make your application stand out in a good way, 550ish or below will make it stand out in a bad way, but they won’t see much difference in the scores in between. I’d only study seriously for math if you have a chance of hitting either of these extremes; if you’re likely to fall in the 600s or low 700s, focus that time and energy on your verbal skills, which remains the most important section for all applicants.

GRE Subject Test

I wish I had more information on the GRE Subject Test (which I found to be much more difficult and stressful than the General) but unfortunately I haven’t figured out much about its weight or cutoffs, if any exist. Most accepted students that I know had percentile ranks in the mid to high 90s, but I’m not sure how indicative of general trends we are. If I find out more I will definitely post an entry.

Until then, study hard and good luck!

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