nananiemand

I also think GRE scores are only relevant for "entry-level" fellowships. I recently applied for a NASA fellowship that is meant for people in the last 2-3 years of their program and no GRE scores were requested at all. Transcripts were still requested though, but word-of-mouth says that they are not very heavily weighted. In my field anyways, funding decisions made after the first couple of years of grad school heavily focus on research productivity/output. If you want to best improve your chances at future funding beyond the GRFP, spend the X hours you were planning on studying for the GRE on your research

Hello all!
 
I was wondering if anyone could provide some advice about whether or not I should consider retesting for a better GRE score. My current score is:    Verb. 160, Quant. 145, Essay 3.5
 
I wasn't in a great place when I took this test originally, hence the pretty low essay portion (I'm a very confident writer, but evidently a poor instructions reader. I literally did this: I thought the first essay was a "short answer" and only wrote five paragraphs... I also honestly did -not- study for the quant portion, sadly). I was always planning on retesting, but now I've been accepted to a program for the Fall and the issue isn't as pressing. However, I still notice that GRE scores are needed for fellowships (I have an NSF GRF, but my PhD will be in social sciences with a median completion of 8.5 years).
 
Based on all this, should I be planning to retest? If not this year, than in a few years when I'm getting ready for dissertation grant-writing? How strongly do GRE scores affect various fellowships/grants?
 
Thanks~~