ollyollyoxenfree

don't let me be a downer! i'm probably being overly pessimistic. just seems sometimes like all the successes come to those with double 170s, but i know there must be others out there. also, i should have said "perfect Q scorers" instead of "not-so-stellar"... that was the application anxiety talking. i'm sure you'll be more than great, gophergrad!

i know it's futile/unhealthy to obsess at this point, but i want to throw another general question about GREs out there. i don't know if it's just me, but the vast majority of scores i see on the results board and in forums like this from past years make me feel like the Q score is going to totally sink me (159Q/168V/5.0) at a top-25, american subfield. are there any fellow not-so-stellar Q scorers out there who have success stories? i know there are all the typical assurances that a GRE score can't make or break you, but the lack of evidence to the contrary has me a bit scared.

hi all, long-time lurker, first-time poster. with my anxiety now beginning to rise with decisions coming in the next few weeks/month, i wanted to take advantage of this great community. better off together! on this note, i agree that your SOP for a PhD should be more akin to a research proposal in your description of interests. i was advised to include specific research questions, data sourcing, brief references to the literature/prominent theories in your field, and how you plan to build on that. granted, with the word limit, you can't go into toooo much detail, but important to at least touch on these points. at least from what i was told from others.