GRE scores for admission

[stat-love]

Hi guys. I will apply to Stat/BioStat Ph.D. in 2022 (this year's application).

Is GRE score Q170/V152/W3.5 sufficient to get admission to top schools such as Stanford/Berkeley/Chicago/Harvard/CMU/Johns Hopkins? I see many posts about GRE score that it is okay to get admission or they just use GRE score as cutoff, but I didn't observe that anyone who got lower below 155 in Verbal and 4.0 in Writing. More specifically, in Gradcafe result, there are only over 160 in Verbal, and 4.5 in writing. Biostat has more strong GRE score I saw.  So, I want to hear some examples that get into called "a top school" that get low GRE score as I mentioned. 

Edited January 13, 2021 by stat-love

[Casorati]

Your score is good enough. You see mostly high scores because international students are less likely to use Grad Cafe forum to post their results so there is selection bias. Schools might use GRE as a cutoff but that's just to weed out applicants with extremely low scores like sub 160 Q or 20th percentile V. One of my friends has lower verbal score than yours and he got into Penn State and UNC.

[Stati]

If you have a solid background, then that score will not hurt you and not help you as GRE is not the first thing for many schools. Note that, however, some schools may have the (unofficial) minimum GRE score--one not top school asked me to get V156.

[stat-love]

@Casorati  @Stati Thank you!  I think that I have very solid mathematical background, and I like research what I'm doing, but I'm getting a lot of stress because of GRE that I should study more. I have one more score that Q170 V155 W3.0, but I heard that W3.0 is very critical. Thank you for your responding. 

[statenth]

I am an international student who once had been worried about not getting high GRE scores. My scores are 169 / 153 / 4.0 for Q / V / A. I wanted to know if schools really CARE about it so I contacted all the schools I plan to apply for.

10% of schools including Rice or Vanderbilt require quantiles over mid eighties for every section(this is what the grad coordinator said). But I can say that 90% will like you if you have a firm profile and passion for research.

Edited January 14, 2021 by statenth

[Casorati]

A 3.0 in writing is a bit low but it won't disqualify you. I would submit your first score with 3.5 in writing. I have never heard of any schools asking for over 80th percentile in each section. It would make sense if they require above 80th percentile in Q though. Even one of my Canadian friends scored 70s in the verbal section and he got accepted into multiple top places. In general if you score at least a 50th percentile in verbal and a 3.5 in writing, you should be fine.

Edited January 14, 2021 by Casorati

[stat-love]

Thank you everyone! I will focus on my research.