Auto-rejection Potential?

[big_things]

Will a 85 percentile in GRE quant get me auto-rejected from top 10 MS/PhD statistics programs? 

[cyberwulf]

No.

[big_things]

2 hours ago, cyberwulf said:

No.

I see, that's reassuring. How much will this hurt my application to those schools in that case? Thanks

[cyberwulf]

Big difference between MS and PhD programs. That score is totally fine for all the former, but might be on the low end for the latter.

[kingduck]

@cyberwulf what is the marginal benefit gained from going from 165 to 166? Is there a threshold before an application is auto-rejected, or is there a range of scores in which adcoms determine to be acceptable scores?

[BL250604]

@kingduckthe higher the better is the general rule but in that range you're sitting fine. The GRE is more of a weed out tool. If you will improve just by 1 point, don't spend the money, it's an expensive test and a 165 vs 166 will be virtually meaningless in the eyes of the adcoms. If it were a 159 to 160, or a 159 to 161, I get it, but not in the mid 160s-- you're fine.

[cyberwulf]

I don't know of any programs that uses an auto-rejection rule based on a hard GRE cutoff. So, regardless of the range in which they occur (within reason; obviously improving from a 145 to a 147 isn't going to make you more competitive), incremental improvements in the GRE score are likely to have similarly incremental effects on your chances of admission.