albcs

Thank you for the advice. Like I said, my writing scores have not been reported yet, and thus I can only speculate. Still, I focused primarily (basically, only) on the Quantitative Reasoning, and while I did achieve my goal there I am not happy with the Verbal. I notice you said my Verbal looked good. Would this mean if my writing score turns out better than I expect I can avoid a retake altogether? (I don't intend to be a lazy applicant, I'd simpy like to avoid a retake if my efforts could be better applied elsewhere in the application.) Also, thank you for the pointer on the CS Subject Test. That is definitely convenient- I looked it up and they are indeed discontinuing it.

Some facts: - Not coming from top Computer Science undergraduate school, but have sustained a GPA above 3.9 - Aspire to make a well-ranked CS PhD program (e.g. somewhere in the top 30 on USNews rankings for CS Grad Schools) - Currently took the GRE once, with 167Q, 155V, ~3.5W (haven't had it officially reported yet, but thats a rough estimate of how it went) I will be applying for Fall 2014, so I have ample time to retake the GRE. Still, I do not want to waste my time where it could be better spent on, say, research or the CS Subject GRE. I also know from reading around that GRE scores do not weigh heavily in comparison to other application elements. However with a reading score that low (I took "they mainly focus on the Quantitative section" a little to seriously), should I retake? Also, how much does it hinder me that my undergraduate school is not one of the top schools when it comes to making a top school for graduate studies? Thank you.