midnight

I'm going to send my letter writers thank you letters, but should I send another small token of thanks along with it if I want to do so? My friend sent her profs thank you cards along with gift cards to a coffee shop after her letters were all sent in, and I thought it was nice but am unsure if it's acceptable.

I found this (though I'm not sure exactly where the author acquired that info, and s/he also misspelled "Berkeley," so...): http://www.newgre.org/admissions/good-gre-scores-engineering-programs/ So, does that mean I can ignore the verbal score? In short, no. Many engineering graduate programs stress that while they’re looking for very high quantitative scores, they are also seeking out well-rounded applicants with the ability to communicate. Candidates with low verbal scores will not be appealing to engineering graduate schools, no matter how high their quantitative score is. Several of the engineering programs at University of California-Berkley, for instance, say candidates who are applying should have both verbal and quantitative scores above the 85th percentile. On average, the top 50 graduate schools were looking for verbal scores at or above the 70th percentile. Ideally, you should be aiming for a verbal score no more than five points lower than your quantitative score. -- Honestly I think you should retake to boost both just to be on the safe side and to offset your GPA a bit, but I'm sure others here can offer more insight!

I think that it's worth applying to those schools if you have an interesting, well-rounded application, e.g., definitely apply to Berkeley as they seem to value more than just test scores. "Fulbright" and "Sorbonne" are impressive even if your GRE scores are lackluster (though 159 V is 84th percentile and isn't all that low). And if you do decide to retake the GRE, I strongly suggest The Princeton Review's Cracking the GRE (this book helps you approach the actual test by learning process of elimination techniques and avoiding common pitfalls), Barron's Six Practice Tests, and ETS's Powerprep software. Bon courage!

aaa57: In your case, I think you may just need to buckle down and cram vocabulary. Check out the Barron's vocab list or similar and study as much as you can. I know that it's stupid and will feel like a waste of time, but serious vocab memorization will probably help raise your score by a significant amount. Make sure you memorize synonyms as well so you can get the sentence equivalence questions right. Take context clues *very seriously* when practicing for all of the verbal section. Context is truly everything now. And if you're about to run out of time on the actual test, complete the remaining questions by guessing. Don't leave any questions blank. Finally, make sure your SOP is flawless and convincing and that your LORs can attest to your skills as well. You want the adcoms to know that you can communicate in strong, fluent English (which I can see here is the case!).

Awesome, wishful! I am waiting on my AW, and I have to say that my issue essay was rough. I wrote as much as I could, but I felt like my examples were weak and not quite specific enough. I essentially went into manic mode and didn't plan anything out before I began typing. Oh well. I'm not retaking the GRE solely for the AW!

My experimental quant didn't have anything too strange aside from a much trickier graph and chart analysis than I'd seen in practice or elsewhere on the test. I don't recall seeing Venn diagrams or parabolas on any of the practice materials. The closest I got to a Venn diagram on the test was a question about intersection between two sets, but the sets were not in diagram form. I have to admit that I'm kind of digging that the GRE is integrating more stats-related problems into the question bank. I had a lot of probability, perm/combo, mean/median/mode/range, and standard dev questions in practice and on the test.

I don't think emailing schools over it is a good idea or at all necessary. Schools are likely being inundated with last-minute emails right now, and what you reported as your course of study on the GRE really isn't an issue. You can see here that ETS internally uses "intended graduate major" as a way to compile average scores per major, i.e., it's likely not even meant for the schools: http://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/gre_guide_table4.pdf

Hm, I kind of think you should send in both scores. Schools will see that your verbal greatly improved and your quant ability is consistently strong. AW doesn't seem to matter much to many programs, but I feel like you should share the 5.0 as well since you earned it, mainly due to the huge percentile disparity between a 5.0 and a 4.0. It seems like sending both would cover all your GRE bases, though of course your SOP, LORs, GPA, experience, etc., etc., etc. are immensely important, more so than test scores.

B.

Isn't the GRE optional at MIT? I swear I've read that in a few places. If it is optional, then I don't think there's much of an advantage in submitting scores unless they're nearly perfect, especially quant.

It doesn't matter. I think it's more for ETS statistical purposes than anything.

I'm strongly considering applying to CU-Boulder's Linguistics MA with a TESOL specialization. If admitted to the program, my ultimate goal would be to teach adults English; I'm not aiming for a PhD or a career involving in-depth linguistics work or research. My current GRE scores are 150q/164v (I'm still waiting on AWA but scored 5.0 on my first GRE attempt). I have a BA in English, a 3.93 GPA, and some previous work tutoring ESOL adults as well as experience tutoring children in English language arts. I'm proficient in French and conversational in Spanish with hopes of becoming proficient over the next year through an enrichment class at a local university and lots of self-practice. Anyway, do you think my quant score will be a major hindrance (or a hindrance at all)? FWIW, I'm fine with math in a classroom setting and always had A's and B's throughout high school and college math. Thanks for any advice or info on GRE scores in admissions or Boulder's program. I truly appreciate it!

I don't know if anyone here truly knows the test algorithm (unless there's an ETS mole in our midst, of course), but I think your plan will likely backfire. My advice is to take a deep breath and try to do your best on both sections. And have you taken an ETS Powerprep practice test? Doing so may give you more confidence.

I'm sure you'll be more than fine! And make sure to review basic probability, mean/median/mode/range, and standard deviation as well (all easy enough). I ran into those questions a lot during practice and on the actual test.

suedonim, Cliffnotes Math Review for Standardized Tests and The Ultimate Math Refresher will quickly get you where you need to be as far as refreshing basic arithmetic, algebra, and geometry concepts. Both were available at my library. Princeton Review's Cracking the GRE is great for GRE-specific math review (the tricky little ways the GRE hopes you'll screw up) and is nicely broken into quick-and-easy sections, and Barron's Six Practice Tests (along with Powerprep, of course) is amazingly similar to the actual GRE in content, variety, format, and difficulty when you're able to sit down for a few full-length practice tests. The books are not expensive and really helped me out of numerous materials that I checked out or bought for practice (albeit I wasn't striving for a perfect or near-perfect score).

Tanner, University of Colorado at Boulder has a terminal master's program. And as of tonight, I'm considering applying to it!

I've seen a handful of people who scored 6 here and on the Applying to Grad LJ community. I think if you're a solid writer and quick thinker, a 6 is doable as long as you write long essays (five to seven paragraphs, though I remember someone who scored 6 whose essays were a bit shorter), use as many specific examples as possible, and make sure to add high-level GRE vocab throughout your writing.

If the schools bother to state cutoffs, I hope that means that they take the time to consider anyone who's above them. It sounds like your application is otherwise strong! And as I mentioned above, I really, really recommend the Barron's practice tests. I found them on par with the actual GRE, and they make for great practice for both verbal and quant. (Princeton Review [aside from its tips and tricks] and Kaplan are too easy and also don't quite hit that specific ETS style.) If you don't make it through this round, you could start studying in earnest in early spring and have plenty of time to take the GRE as needed before next year's deadlines. Best of luck!

What are the program averages?

It depends on where you're applying. Many schools don't care about the AW, but some do. Check the programs' sites to see if they mention an AW cutoff or emphasize it in any way. However, I think that if your SOP is strong and the rest of your app is solid, AW probably isn't a big deal.

You're applying to top schools and highly competitive programs, so I definitely think you should study hard and retake. I think UCSD's acceptance numbers and applicant averages tell you all you need to know-- How many applicants do you accept to the program each year? Every year varies, but here are some statistics from the Fall 11 entering class: 12 students admitted from 133 applications 3.6 GPA average 680/760/5.25 GRE Average for Verbal/Quant/Analytical respectively Majors included such varied fields as: Chemistry, Computer Science, Cognitive Science, Electrical Engineering and Linguistics 152 on the GRE likely isn't going to cut it. You should probably be aiming for 160+. Cliffnotes Math Review for Standardized Tests is a cheap and comprehensive math refresher. (Many people here swear by Manhattan for math; I've never used it, but you may want to check into it.) I highly suggest The Princeton Review's Cracking the GRE for general test tips and tricks as GRE quant isn't always straightforward even if you know all the concepts and Barron's Six Practice Tests along with ETS's Powerprep for solid practice as well. Practice A LOT. Good luck!

If you are considering a retake, please read this post. Quant is my weakness, and I scored the equivalent of a 142 the first time (490 on the old test). I decided to take a Kaplan class, get some books, and refresh what I could. I wasn't aiming for perfection (ha, as if), just a score that wouldn't be an outright detriment. I took the GRE again on Wednesday and scored 150 quant--which, while many here would curl up and die at that score, suits my needs well enough. (And I went up in verbal, too, from a 162 to a 164, so hey.) The Kaplan class was helpful but extremely overpriced for the amount of in-person instruction time, but I know that it helped me a bit. Also...and this may be strange advice, but I'm going to give it anyway: Don't try to cover all the concepts. I was getting frustrated remembering a lot of the geometry (and yeah, I know it shouldn't even be about simple memorization but about fundamentally understanding it, but that's another post for another day), so I decided to learn what I comfortably could and then focus the rest of my attention on other problems I was seeing again and again in practice (these are musts IMO: algebraic expressions, probability, mean/mode/median/range, standard deviation, charts/graphs, and word problems). I think the absolute best book for GRE tips and tricks is The Princeton Review's Cracking the GRE while Barron's Six GRE Practice Tests is the best for practice (aside from Powerprep)--its questions and content are in line with the actual GRE's difficulty and overall feel. Good luck whatever you decide to do!

Yeah, I'm 90% sure my second quant section was experimental (which was good because I didn't manage my time well during it and ended up guessing on about five questions and had to rush back to a couple of marked ones as well!). But in the moment it's easy to forget about the experimental component, and you still need to perform well because you can't be sure.... I'll just say it was a relief to see my results since I met my very modest goal.

Well, after re-taking the GRE today, I can safely say that vocab gave me little trouble, but some of the reading comps were a bit tricky for me (though GRE RC is always my verbal weakness, especially science-based excerpts).

Yeah, I took the GRE for the second time just today. I canNOT wait to throw out all of my prep materials (well, I'm going to donate them to Goodwill, but I want them out of my house FOREVER!). Oh, and I forgot to mention one thing: you probably want to apply to as many schools as you reasonably can to up your chances. Schools are receiving a lot of applications for not very many slots, but the admissions process seems unpredictable. And if you have one or two top schools in mind, it isn't crazy to apply to them as well. Just make sure your list has a lot of the other schools similar to the ones discussed in your previous post.