An urgent inquiry about GRE's impacts on profiles

[cheetah]

Hi all,

I'm applying for the Ph.D. programs in PoliSci now. A non-native speaker with a degree in the U.S., almost all good regarding GPA, SOP, letters, experiences, etc. Sadly, I have two GRE scores: V (155), Q (168), AW (3.5); V (154), Q (161), AW (4.5). Would you suggest sending them both to schools with GRE as a requirement (given that my second AW is higher), or just sending the first one?

I know that many people say (1) GRE is not as important as previous years; (2) Verbal's bar for non-native speakers is not very high; (3) it's pretty unsafe to have a section below 160 (90th percentile); (4) a low GRE score will result in a funding problem, i.e. taking a quota of 'waiver'; (5) adcom will review all files together... However, different people have diverse views on the importance of GRE. I have browsed the majority of information on this website, and getting more and more nervous about my low Verbal score.

My questions: How much does it hurt? Will my profile be passed for the first round by the Grad School? Is it okay to ask my profs to indicate that a low standardized test score does not mean a low academic ability in the letters? Should I address why I performed poorly in my GRE test in the optional section/supplementary materials on the application web?

Thank you so much! 

Edited November 29, 2020 by cheetah

[guest789]

I'd just submit to places that have made it mandatory (so NYU, WUSTL, Harvard, Stanford, UCLA) and probably wouldn't submit to others. The low verbal score can presumably be offset by a killer writing sample and LORs (TBH I think these matter more than anything else, so if you have a trustworthy/well-known academic who will fight for you, that's good), just like a low quant score can be offset by an amazing quant writing sample - and by quant I mean, like, building models in Stan... Because that will be your competition and given your low scores you need to be better than your competition.

I'd go with the first one - AW doesn't matter that much from what I hear.

 

 

[cheetah]

13 hours ago, timeseries said:

I'd just submit to places that have made it mandatory (so NYU, WUSTL, Harvard, Stanford, UCLA) and probably wouldn't submit to others. The low verbal score can presumably be offset by a killer writing sample and LORs (TBH I think these matter more than anything else, so if you have a trustworthy/well-known academic who will fight for you, that's good), just like a low quant score can be offset by an amazing quant writing sample - and by quant I mean, like, building models in Stan... Because that will be your competition and given your low scores you need to be better than your competition.

I'd go with the first one - AW doesn't matter that much from what I hear.

 

 

Thanks so much! My only concern is that if I submit the first one, would AW3.5 be a significantly low score...While if submit both, would the adcom think my performance goes down after several years of study in the U.S., given my second test is taken during quarantines? I have relatively a good WS in terms of quali writing and quant models.