How much will my GRE score hurt me in this case..MA Degree, unique thesis, research job with respected prof.

[historyspace]

Hi everyone, just my second post in about 3 years, but I am faced with a dilemma. I recently earned my MA in history. For whatever its worth this particular college, per US World and News Report, is ranked #35 in history graduate programs (I know I know for PhDs). My final GPA= 3.85, and while I did not get straight As, professors (from my MA college and outside) told me I had written a "unique" thesis. Since filing my thesis, I've done some part time tutoring and most importantly, a respected professor hired me as a research assistant for his book. One benefit to this is that this professor has served on numerous admissions committees/has been the chair of the dept, so he has looked over numerous drafts of my personal statement/statement of purpose. 
HERE'S THE POINT: My GRE scores were mediocre. 154 v/139q/4.5 writing. Considering all that information I provided above, how much will this hurt my chances for history PhD programs? I've plunged hundreds of dollars into tutoring (yeah I know...but I want this) and prep material and while I'm only a couple weeks into it, I seem to be doing worst in the verbal section. I know this is an age old excuse but standardized tests just bring out the worst in me. Should I chance it with these scores? I signed up for a Sept. test..
IMPORTANT INFO: i'm not looking to apply to Harvard or anything. But I'm looking at some decent to ok- ranked history programs such as: North Carolina, University of Washington, University of California Santa Cruz, UT Austin, NYU, University of Illinois...
I've been freaking out about this all summer. Please someone bring some perspective to this....

Edited June 21, 2018 by historyspace

[Sandmaster]

I can not really help much to history and those programs as I am not in the field, but I can give some insight into how my admissions process went.
I was in the process of getting my master's when I applied to PhD programs and my UG GPA (all attempts included) was like 2.85 or something substantially low, and my Master's GPA was 3.67 (which is still somewhat low, but much better than UG). My GRE scores were v151, q154, and AW 5.0. For the education field, verbal is typically the one with the most emphasis placed on it so I was basically at the 50th percentile for it. I was applying to second tier schools (public ivies such as UW-Madison, Michigan, and Minnesota). I was interviewed at all but one of the applied schools and was admitted to all but two (the one I didn't even get an interview at and one that I interviewed but it had the weakest research fit to me). I got in at some very high ranked schools despite my mediocre GRE scores and my not amazing GRE scores. I think the reason why is simply because I applied to schools where the research fit was nearly perfect and I spent more time on my writing sample and revising it along with spending months on writing and rewriting my statement of purpose. I had been told by two programs that I was their top pick and first admit (again programs ranked in the top 10).

So the point is, GPA and GRE are not everything. I really comes down to your SOP, Diversity Statement, Writing Sample, Recommendations, and how you interview/the passion and confidence you display to the program. I think those are all far more important to a program than how you do on a standardized test. I do recommend at least trying to retake the exam (I know it will suck having to pay more to retake), but a 139q score may catch someone's eye. I think I was able to skate by the GRE requirements because I had 150+ in both sections and while that may not be possible for your quant score, you can at least try to raise it closer to that number.

Best of luck to you!

Edited June 21, 2018 by Sandmaster

[historyspace]

18 hours ago, Sandmaster said:

I can not really help much to history and those programs as I am not in the field, but I can give some insight into how my admissions process went.
I was in the process of getting my master's when I applied to PhD programs and my UG GPA (all attempts included) was like 2.85 or something substantially low, and my Master's GPA was 3.67 (which is still somewhat low, but much better than UG). My GRE scores were v151, q154, and AW 5.0. For the education field, verbal is typically the one with the most emphasis placed on it so I was basically at the 50th percentile for it. I was applying to second tier schools (public ivies such as UW-Madison, Michigan, and Minnesota). I was interviewed at all but one of the applied schools and was admitted to all but two (the one I didn't even get an interview at and one that I interviewed but it had the weakest research fit to me). I got in at some very high ranked schools despite my mediocre GRE scores and my not amazing GRE scores. I think the reason why is simply because I applied to schools where the research fit was nearly perfect and I spent more time on my writing sample and revising it along with spending months on writing and rewriting my statement of purpose. I had been told by two programs that I was their top pick and first admit (again programs ranked in the top 10).

So the point is, GPA and GRE are not everything. I really comes down to your SOP, Diversity Statement, Writing Sample, Recommendations, and how you interview/the passion and confidence you display to the program. I think those are all far more important to a program than how you do on a standardized test. I do recommend at least trying to retake the exam (I know it will suck having to pay more to retake), but a 139q score may catch someone's eye. I think I was able to skate by the GRE requirements because I had 150+ in both sections and while that may not be possible for your quant score, you can at least try to raise it closer to that number.

Best of luck to you!

Hey Sandmaster I appreciate you sharing your experience and advice. Yeah, I figure I'll try to retake it, I've already signed up for a Sept test. I'm cracking the books hard and am having someone help me with math. 150 is the dream, but 142-145 is the goal ha. I'm aiming for the 160s for verbal. While yes it does suck having to go through this again, that's life. 
Thank you again!

[HTM18]

Hi...I would retake the GRE again! I feel that your V and AW are fine but your Q is very low.  Good Luck

I took it 3 times before getting good scores

Edited July 22, 2018 by HTM18

[historygeek]

I got a 160V and a 142Q. I was nervous about it, so reached out to my top choice programs (Harvard and Columbia). Both said the same thing: don’t worry about it. Worry about LORs, SOPs, and your writing sample. 

[RipCityBaby]

On 7/31/2018 at 11:28 AM, historygeek said:

I got a 160V and a 142Q. I was nervous about it, so reached out to my top choice programs (Harvard and Columbia). Both said the same thing: don’t worry about it. Worry about LORs, SOPs, and your writing sample. 

That is really good to hear, as I am not expecting great scores but have a much better CV/resume that I hope will carry me forward into a phd program.