should I retake the GRE

[chrismooch91]

I will apply to programs in the top 10, 25, 50, and 75 

GRE score: 159V/153Q/5AWA

Education: MA in political science from ranked R1 state school 

GPA: 3.95

Research methods background: excelled in 2 (quant) research methods and 4 (quant) advanced methods courses while in grade school (received A's in all)

Research background: 1 sole authored publication in peer reviewed journal, 1 under review

LORs: Two of my methods professors will write strong recs for me, emphasizing my performance in their methods courses. One who is a top scholar in his discipline (a discipline I seek to study in a phd program) will also write a letter for me.

SOP: I believe it is pretty good... it is currently being read and revised by prof. who is writing me an LOR

 

I know this is difficult to answer, but do you think it's necessary to retake the GRE?

[MyWay]

Tbh, it is really weird to me that one can nail 6 advanced methods courses while getting a 153 in the quant section. I would seriously consider retaking GRE as one might start to question the academic rigor of your program. 

[chrismooch91]

so, retake... noted

more helpful replies preferred...

[Boolakanaka]

Yup, CAL, 163, UCSB, 167,  Harvard 169, Wisconsin, 167....Unless you can dramatically advance your quant score, you might want to concentrate on schools outside the top 25.

[chrismooch91]

@Boolakanaka how sure are you about those numbers? surely people have gotten into those programs with significantly lower Q scores....

[Boolakanaka]

@chrismooch91See-https://econ.ucsb.edu/~startz/A Guide for UCSB Undergraduates Considering a PhD in Economics.pdf

[chrismooch91]

 @Boolakanaka that's for PhD in econ... I'm apply to political science PhD programs

[Boolakanaka]

My bad...apologies.

[Boolakanaka]

Lower 160s seem to be a norm for upper programs...see:https://www.sas.upenn.edu/polisci/node/876 and https://www.sas.upenn.edu/polisci/node/876

[chrismooch91]

@Boolakanaka no prob, thanks for you help

[PolPhil]

Low 160s is a minimum If you have a good GPA (which you seem to have) and strong letters, SOP, etc. But really, if you did that well in your math classes, there's no reason why you can't score above 165 on the GRE, unless your math classes were not sufficiently rigorous. 

[uncle_socks]

Why do you think there's a big discrepancy in between your methods course performance and your quantitative GRE score? What kind of topics were covered in these methods courses? 

I'll echo what everyone else here is saying: yes, those GRE scores need work if you want to get into somewhere in the top 25. It's really hard to imagine anyone being very good at methods and doing average on the quant portion of the GRE unless the methods courses are too easy. Pretty much all programs ranked 25 or better that publish average scores for their students has a 160+ average. 159V could also really benefit from a boost of a couple points or more. 

 

Top 50 and top 75 programs, sure, you wouldn't necessarily need to retake.