168(V)/148(Q) non-native speaker philosophy PhD applicant

[lukasodb]

Hello all,

I'm looking to apply to a top 20 philosophy department (not Chicago and not UCSD) in the US. My interest lies in applied ethics and political philosophy, specifically the political philosophy of immigration. Also, I'm Dutch and English is my second language, though I should add that I have an Msc from the University of Edinburgh.

So, it appears I scored a 168/148 on the GRE, which I feel ambivalent about. I'm happy with the verbal score, but I think I could have done better on the 148. On the first math section I kind of lost track of time and I think I left at least 6-7 questions completely open. I know, rookie mistake, but it happened. I think I could have scored maybe a 150 if I hadn't left those questions open and if I had adopted a better strategy (skip to the easy questions like data analysis and then tackle the harder ones). My prep time was about two weeks. Of course, I immediately avow that something like a 152-153 is probably the highest I could get, given that I'm just not that good at maths. But still that's a lot better than a 148 or 30th percentile.

Now, my question is, will these departments overlook my poor quant score in virtue of my very good verbal score? I've heard people getting into MIT with a 48 quant. On the other hand, I know the average applicant scores about a 153-155 on quant. What do y'all think? Your input is much appreciated.

(Note that I have browsed through other topics, but since I only found one guy in a somewhat similar situation—'somewhat' because although he scored 166/146, he was a native speaker— I thought I'd start a new topic.)

Edited December 7, 2018 by lukasodb
lacunae

[The_Last_Thylacine]

You should be fine at the University of Arizona. Do a results search for "philosophy" and the Leiter-ranked schools to see how those who were accepted scored on the GRE. There is too small an amount of available data from MIT to know what they expect.

I am a native English speaker and my verbal score isn't even as high as yours. I only scored a 165, but I did score a 161 in math by studying a lot.

Some departments will view a 148 with suspicion as to your quantitative abilities, but if you have done well in logic classes, or have other evidence of your quantitative abilities, it might not be an issue. Generally, a composite score between 310 and 325 will neither help nor hurt your application, and scores above that can only help negligibly.