DharmaBum25

Thank you for being frank! The feedback is much appreciated. My GPA is as low as it is because of my freshman year because I got a D, a B- and a C first term. Very rough start. However, starting my second term of my sophomore year, I got straight A's minus one B. Is there nothing to be said of an upward trend? May I ask what your background is, and what makes you so confident? Have you served on a committee before, or are you speculating? Thanks!

If you're data inclined, here's an interesting article that attempts to use data to answer your question: adas.com/writes/the-grad-school-statistics-we-never-had/. It provides a pretty good analysis of data self-reported by students here on the Grad Cafe. The takeaway I got from the article is that if you are applying for top-level programs, GPA and GRE scores are highly correlated with admittance to these programs. However, the author of the article also does a good job qualifying his/her results by mentioning potential factors that could make the results misleading. Anyways... very good read to get started.

So I recently took the GRE and I scored a 325 (163V, 162Q, and 5AW), and I'm applying for philosophy Ph.D. programs next fall. I know that GRE scores are not the defining factor of an application for philosophy programs. However, I'm wondering if anyone out there can help me understand what my options look like with these scores and if it would be worthwhile to re-take the test since I have a fair amount of time before I need to start applying. From what I understand, a 163 on the verbal section isn't too remarkable for a philosophy student applying for grad programs. To give you more background, my undergraduate degree was in philosophy (my program was ranked somewhere in the top 100), I've taken a couple graduate course in philosophy (Metaethics and Philosophy of Mind), and my undergraduate GPA in philosophy was a 3.7 (freshman year I got a B- and a B). Does anyone have any advice?