I graduated from the law school last year (not US). Although my gpa was 3.40 in the first half and i was in top 10 in the class, as i became more interested in philosophy my gpa dropped as low as to 2.73 out of 4. During this periodl I publish articles in philosophy so i have two publications in pre reviewed undergraduate journals now.
I want to offer them a good application so I decided to take this year off to fill in the gaps of my knowledge in philosophy, write a good sample and publish more articles. In addition, I already have two professors willing to write very commendatory letters for me.
In three months i will take my ielts and gre. I have no doubts about my ielts success but this will be the first time I will take gre and honesty I am a bit too nervous not only because it is a wholly new exam format to me but also in my country gre exam period ends in May and does not open until after the application deadline of the unis. In other words if I mess my gre up, then I will have to apply with bad gre scores, which would be bad although none of the three unis have cutoffs for gpa or gre scores.
I have been writing more articles and if everything goes well I will have 4-6 articles published in pre reviewed journals (some may be well known) by the time I apply next year. I do know I have to get a high gre score since my gpa is already low but I can't help asking myself this question. What if I messed my gre exam and got some low to average score (say 150V / 150Q). I've got one shot and this possibility really haunts me.
Could anyone please tell me how much gre and gpa matter to these universities in philosophy MA application? They say they have no cutoffs and I absolutely believe them but if they had to choose between me and a student with high gpa and gre but worse writing sample, letters, or publications, would I stand a chance? Could you inform me about what respective values they ascribe to the different elements in an application, especially to the applicant's previously published works?
Thanks
