Emma2003

I think the fact that I haven't yet been rejected has to be positive. although, I am hoping to hear soon...

If i don't include either checking gradcafe results search for any news or checking my application status through the school website, I think that leaves....

1. Beatles Rockband
2. Watching Torchwood
3. Organizing my purse.
4. Learning piano.
5. Trying not to nap. (Unemployed and out of undergrad for nine months, believe me, this is an accomplishment!)
6. Pretending I'm reading "City of Thieves" when I'm really re-reading the Half Blood Prince
7. Accidentally watching Spongebob Squarepants for several hours before I realize my kids are at school, and I can watch anything I want.
8. Painting wood to look like a different kind of wood...(so the threshold matches the wood floor.)
9. Playing Words with Friends on my phone.

You know, I wasn't trying to teach you anything. Nor did I personally attack you. I am sorry that you feel the need to be combative. I am not in anyway implying that there aren't cut off numbers for programs, and that depending on the type of programs, that the standards are more rigorous than others. I made this post originally before I read the long history of intense fighting in this thread, and went back and edited it to explain that. However, the just of what you seemed to be saying was that no one should apply to grad school without reaching a particular score on the GRE, and I still disagreed with that, so I didn't delete what I wrote. Top schools do accept candidates with varying scores, and what a good score is depends upon more things than the raw score itself. You did not provide any substantive back up data at that point, and you really did seem to be discounting the fact that there are great differences in percentile rankings between the two sections. Things aren't black and white. A score of 1200 that has a 500Q and a 700v might have an excellent shot of getting into the English PHD program at Berkley (your example). And a person with an 800Q and a 700+ verbal might not make it into MIT because of a lack of relevant research experience or less noteworthy LOR. (I removed the part about Brown, because I found individual subject area pages of their site that stated the GRE is required. I was basing this on several sites i found that said Brown did not require GRE scores for acceptance. for example: http://www.greexplorer.com/Average-GRE-Scores/Brown-University.html. And: http://testprep.about.com/od/thegretest/f/GRE_FAQ_Score.htm. Its important to be accurate and admit when I've made a mistake! :-) )

People are making the decisions, and a lot can happen inside that process.

I am sympathetic to your frustration after reading the thread, and I don't necessarily disagree that sometimes, especially in this competitive climate that the GRE is a controllable way that you can improve your chances. I do think it is excessive to discourage people who are excellent candidates to apply because they are poor test takers. In researching Berkley, in general, based on your response to my reply, I found this response to what the average GRE scores they accepted were: "Many students admitted into our program score in the 750-800 range in the Quantitative section and above 500-550 in the Verbal section. Again, this is an average and the admissions committee looks at a student's WHOLE application not just their GRE scores." Emphasizing the last part. I found similar language used on most of the university sites I visited.

Graduate school is difficult to get into, but not impossible, and there are many people who do succeed, with varied backgrounds, scores and experiences. And sometimes, the decisions are arbitrary, or based on funding and fit. I was speaking with a friend who got into a program during a year when they let 20 people into her department and the next year, they let one person in.

I took issue with you presenting an argument through which you indicated that the GRE was a dispassionate tool, yet your examples of the 760q and 700 v didn't support that. It implied that there were different standards between fields in terms of general score. It implied that there were differences in the playing fields, even in your mind. The GRE is not a dispassionate tool. It makes decisions about your abilities and is extremely unforgiving, and not necessarily the best indicator of those abilities. It decides what questions you see, and places a value level on what you are able to answer correctly. People are not getting the same test and being judged based on performance to an identical measuring stick. On the verbal, you can memorize 1500 words and if there is one there you either haven't seen, or don't remember, it may not matter. The GRE is a blunt knife. And I think that most admissions committees understand this.

I am sorry if I rubbed salt in your wounds, I didn't mean to offend. I hope that you got high scores, and I hope they serve you well. I was average on writing and average on quantitative and "good" on verbal. Here's hoping each of is right with respect to the programs we applied.

One application, no word yet. Based on last years dates It seems like I've got about a week left. Which means I'll either get the best birthday present ever or the worst. After 4 rejections last round, I'm not going to worry, one can't hurt as much as four, right?