GRE Scores for History PhD programs

[Homo Sapien]

Can someone tell me whether I should retake gre before applying to History Phd programmes. My present scores are- 158v and 160q. I am planning to apply to top 20 schools and don't want a premature discarding of my file due to low gre scores.

Edited October 29, 2018 by jacob478

[VAZ]

You are fine. Focus on the more important stuff, i.e. SoP, WS and (asking whom to writer) the letters. 

[Tigla]

I will second Vaz's comments. I have the similar GRE scores and was put on waitlists across the board last cycle. If your WS, SOP, and letters are fine-tuned pieces, then your application will be read and a decision will be made on it, hopefully without looking at the GRE score. Best of luck with your application!

[urbanhistorynerd]

My verbal is a little higher than yours. Quant I don't even want to talk about (not like it matters anyways). And my analytical really shined through. That being said, my POI at Harvard said GRE matters very, very little. SOP, WS, and letters of recs matter the most.

[historygeek]

14 minutes ago, urbanhistorynerd said:

My verbal is a little higher than yours. Quant I don't even want to talk about (not like it matters anyways). And my analytical really shined through. That being said, my POI at Harvard said GRE matters very, very little. SOP, WS, and letters of recs matter the most.

My POI at Harvard said the same thing; ditto with Columbia. NYU actually just completely waived the GRE requirement. I had a 160V and a 5.5AW, and everyone has told me that that was fine.

[dr. t]

I tell this story often, but when I was reaching out, I was worried that my AW score (4.5) was low enough to merit a retake. The DGS paused for a second to think and then asked, "is that the one that's out of 6?"

[lordtiandao]

Yeah I got in with a 4.5 AW score too. You'll be fine.

[psstein]

Some programs care about it a lot and use it as an entrance barrier. I know of one HoS department that does take it seriously. If you're working in a relevant area (e.g. history of mathematics), then it matters a lot. For most programs, though, it's sort of a formality.

Many programs don't care. Some will use it to grant fellowships or whatever, but most programs do not care in the slightest.

Edited October 31, 2018 by psstein

[ashiepoo72]

Back in ancient times when I applied, UCSB and a few other programs I can't recall wanted at least 80th percentile across the board for funding purposes. So my guess is programs struggling to fund everyone (primarily at public universities) will want to see certain scores so grad students have a better shot at getting university fellowships etc.

Pretty sure OP is above this threshold and has nothing to worry about, but I figured I'd share for posterity.