meteora

I see. Then, at least meeting the average scores of that specific year would be important. In other words, I would rather maximize my scores....

If you are a British, I think 155 (v) will be okay. But if you are not, it will hurt you. Determinedandnervous, Does your institution have a cutoff score? (though it might me implicit)

Last year, I applied to UC Davis with the same verbal score (155). I was rejected from the institution, and low GRE score was written as a reason of the rejection. I guess that international students have to have higher GRE verbal score for the institution and other similar level universities.

Hi. If you can improve your Q score, I think that it is quite reasonable to take another one. I personally believe that 162-163 scores are sufficient to get into the most prestigious schools. But I doubt 158 is high enough to compete with other well-qualified applicants. I understand why I got rejected from Northwestern (I am pretty sure I also submitted relatively bad sop and writing sample than the admitted students). As you said, it looks 160 is kind of a cutoff score especially for international students.

I am quite relieved. Thanks!

Hi Determinedandnervous, In fact, I only have a master's thesis. I think my research experience is weak and I will not have a chance to publish in 6 months. I will try to update my writing sample and sop. What I can hope is that my writing sample and sop are competitive. The DGS of the school where I had been waitlisted looked up my full file and only pointed out my GRE scores. He added that If I had had 158 verbal score, I would have been accepted somewhere. In fact, I do not have an ability to evaluate the quality of my writing sample and sop. Yes, there is a trade-off between retaking GRE and having more research experience. I will consult with my letter writers to improve my writing sample. Thanks for your comment.

Hi PizzaCat93, I've always loved your profile picture. Since I am sympathetic to qualitative research, I really value your anecdotal. It sounds 16x score has different value with 15x score. If this is the case, I think that I should retake the test. In addition, I will try to improve every aspect of my application materials except LORs. Thanks for your opinion.

Hi, Maybe some of you saw me in the last admission cycle. Unfortunately, my last admission cycle was unsuccessful, and the DGS of the school where I had been waitlisted pointed out that my verbal gre score was low (155/160). I retook a GRE test and got 166/158. Since I was so nervous that I would not be able to have a higher verbal score (I am an international student), I only studied the verbal section. Fortunately, I am satisfied with my verbal score, but I am considering retaking another GRE test because of the low quant score. I am confident that I will be able to improve my quant score to 163 or 165 (not 167 or 170 though). Some of my friends advised me that 158 quant score is okay and I should concentrate on other materials such as sop and writing sample. May I have some opinions?

Congratulations for the UIUC acceptance! I am just wondering whether his/her field is actually CP.

It's awesome. Congrats!

Thanks for your answer. Maybe they break the wait list by field. Anyway, it looks that your chance for the school is quite high. Good luck!

Does anyone know how an unofficial wait list works? Does it mean that there is also an official wait list?

Has anyone heard from UIUC recently?

I also have not heard from Georgetown. What depresses me is that they had taken about a week to notify the decisions to every rejected applicant (roughly from 3/17 to 3/23).

I really hope that you will be admitted from the wait list. Did you hear that you were in the official wait list? I am not sure whether they have both official and unofficial wait lists.

It looks UIUC waits until some people decline their offers and contacts the applicants in the unofficial wait list. In fact, I am not sure whether some applicants are in a short wait list. Anyway, I heard only two or three people can be admitted in the field of IR this year. Thus, I really do not expect much.

I heard it from the coordinator.

The department sent initial acceptances and rejections. If you had not heard from the department, you would have been in the unofficial waitlist. In IR, there are about 30 people in the waitlist. However, I heard that not really many people would be admitted from the list, since the department should have a very small cohort this year.

Did anyone receive official rejections from UIUC, Duke, Colorado, North Carolina, and Georgetown? It looks many schools send out acceptances earlier than rejections.

Hi all, XXX/154/4.0 XXX/160/3.0. I have exactly same verbal scores for both tests. Some people said AWA scores really did not matter. Should I use the second one?

Nah. I did not apply to Utah. Thanks for your advice though. I have already experienced that I was rejected, while others were rejected several days ago. Hopefully, same thing will not happen to me.. I am just curios how many people have not heard from the department.

Hasn't anyone not heard from Georgetown yet? It looks they have sent their first rejections since last Friday. Maybe it just takes time to upload all 500 rejections.

Thanks for your answer. Did you submit your result for BU at the result page?

I haven't heard from Georgetown yet. Did they make all decisions and send out every acceptance?

If you are interested in IPE and constructivism, there is Mark Blyth. He is the most impressive pioneer in that field with Colin Hay and Vivien Schmidt (BU). By the way, when did you receive your offer for Boston University?