GNC

I got IM/B E/E G/G VG/E Got nothing. I am honestly really annoyed with the second reviewer and have no idea what the heck he/she was thinking. The reviewer raved about my intellectual merit with absolutely no complaint and gave me a G? Basically gave me a score of G/G without any explanation for IM and only one tid bit for BI.. what the heck am I supposed to do with that? I guess it is hit or miss with the reviewers..

Rejection absolutely sucks. What more can I say..

Depends on what you consider a rejection. If you consider applying for doctoral program but getting masters admission acceptance then I got in at an 86% clip. But if you consider such a case a rejection i was batting at 57%.

So i decided to go the HDFS route at UT Austin. Excited but nervous as hell.

Hopefully it passes soon.

Oh geez me too. I JUST made my decision, but prior to making it I was having terrible nightmares on a regular basis ( and I haven't had nightmares in ages). One morning I woke up gasping for air thought I was dying. I thought I was crazy to be having nightmares when one of my top 2 choices said yes and I was scared out of my mind. Neverthless, now that I have made my decision I am most likely going to have even worse nightmares about relocating and all that jazz..

Seriously ughh. For me personally it is between two programs as well. One is within 100 miles near my home and near my family and girlfriend of 5 years. I liked it, however it's reputation doesn't stand against the second program. The other which is a much much better program is the best option in terms of academics, financial aid... basically everything aside from being near the family and girlfriend since it is extremely far away. And I know what I need to do but I am just scared out my mind.

So the time has come/is coming to decide and I am scared to make that final commitment ughh

I disagree with this wholeheartedly. I practiced my *** off, and do not consider myself stupid. But for one reason or another the verbal section got the better of me each time. I put in my time for the GRE's and I believe I am/was just as qualified as anyone else despite the fact that I didn't pull over 1200. And for what it is worth getting about 1160 you rank about the 62% percentile. Not below the 50th. Quite frankly I believe that my work as an undergraduate, the conference presentations, my research and my papers in review mean more than some exam that tests me on esoteric terminology and their usage. The majority of these words, I will never use again. I agree that you shouldn't take it blindly but saying that the GRE scores reflects the amount of effort someone put is completely false. This I can agree with.

No one said GRE's don’t matter, because that is false and they do matter to some extent. We are saying that the GRE's will not be the death of your application if you didn't score amazingly. Furthermore, we are reiterating the fact that you are a package and not just a 4 digit number representing your GRE's which is the end all be all. Is it a competitive process? Absolutely. Do better GRE scores help? Probably. Will a blemish in your overall package kill your chances? I think not. I personally think that applicants including myself view(ed) the GRE as an application killer if you don’t do great. But this is not true.

I am glad a number of us sub 1200 folks are chiming in. I remember browsing through some forums and people would complain about 1300+ scores or near perfect 1600 and it honestly made me feel incompetent. Sub 1200 is not a death sentance.

Personally, unless I was rolling in cash, I'd never pay for a PhD. I'd go find a job that would strengthen my CV and give me some experience to help me out next year in applying.

The poster had said 'unless you believe you are going to boost it at least 100 points'. The point I got from it is that if you got a 1160 don't retake it if you think you are going to only increase it 40 points to get the 1200 mark because things can go wrong which should be accounted for. If you aim for at least 100 you give yourself room for error and have a better chance to increase your score. Although the GRE is a big part of the application I have to disagree with the "under 1200" line and that you would have to retake it. I agree if we are talking clinical(I'm developmental), but disagree otherwise. I took it the first time and got 1160 I believe. Took it a second time and did slightly worse going on the assumption that I could raise my score to 1200. But to be honest it didn't really hinder me from getting interviews for doctoral programs and only one place ever mentioned my GRE score during the interview process. I think the saying that programs weed you out if your GRE is below X score is overblown (not that some programs don't do this). If your entire package looks great a blemish here and there won't screw you over in my opinion. But 1200 is a good benchmark. Again, clinical is another story and the 1200+ line in my opinion is more serious. A tip for future applicants: once you have submitted your applications don't go over your SOP, writing samples, CV etc. because you will find errors and that will drive you crazy. Put your time into something else!

I second this 100%.

Damn you columbia.. got the response from their website They started off the letter 'congratulations for your admission to columbia blah blah blah' then the next sentance says 'although you applied for the pHd we felt that masters was mroe appropriate' way to make me all excited