Retaking GRE?

[Cdot]

Hey forum,

I am an international student who is planning to apply to MPAs and various other degrees (with a focus on energie, environment and economics) this year. Since I probably want to work back in Europe (or internationally) the name of the school and its international alumni network are quite a factor for me. The schools I am mostly interested are SIPA, HKS and Yale FES (with a dual degree). I am not sure how important the GRE is and would like to hear opinions if you think I should retake it.

I did well in the quantitative section (800) but didn't have time to exstensively prepare for the verbal part, so I did quite bad (430 and 4.0). I did okay on the IBT TOEFL with a 110 out of 120 but I still have doubts how schools will view my fair performance in the verbal section. Would you recommend me to re-take the GRE or spend the extra time on the rest of the application.

Any advice is appreciated!

[MaxwellAlum]

Hey forum,

I am an international student who is planning to apply to MPAs and various other degrees (with a focus on energie, environment and economics) this year. Since I probably want to work back in Europe (or internationally) the name of the school and its international alumni network are quite a factor for me. The schools I am mostly interested are SIPA, HKS and Yale FES (with a dual degree). I am not sure how important the GRE is and would like to hear opinions if you think I should retake it.

I did well in the quantitative section (800) but didn't have time to exstensively prepare for the verbal part, so I did quite bad (430 and 4.0). I did okay on the IBT TOEFL with a 110 out of 120 but I still have doubts how schools will view my fair performance in the verbal section. Would you recommend me to re-take the GRE or spend the extra time on the rest of the application.

Any advice is appreciated!

You could try phoning up the schools and asking, or just e-mailing them. I got a 4.5 on the analytical writing section; I asked someone at a top 5 IR school whether it would be a problem and they said no, since there was plenty of other evidence that I'm a good writer (majored in literature, won award for my thesis). Given that you're an international student and you did fine on the TOEFL there's a chance they won't care about the verbal GRE score (I really doubt they will care at all about the analytical writing score), but it's a good idea to ask them.

[American in Beijing]

You could try phoning up the schools and asking, or just e-mailing them. I got a 4.5 on the analytical writing section; I asked someone at a top 5 IR school whether it would be a problem and they said no, since there was plenty of other evidence that I'm a good writer (majored in literature, won award for my thesis). Given that you're an international student and you did fine on the TOEFL there's a chance they won't care about the verbal GRE score (I really doubt they will care at all about the analytical writing score), but it's a good idea to ask them.

I've had mixed reports on whether Verbal GRE scores matter for international students. One of my professors (at the time an international student from Taiwan) got into a program at Harvard with very low GRE scores. However, a close friend of mine from Japan with similarly low verbal scores was rejected from all the programs she applied to this year. One of the programs told her that her low GRE scores were a factor in her rejection.

You have a lot of time until applications are due. Why not try and improve your verbal section scores? Given how competitive grad school admissions have been these past couple of years, it could end up making a big difference.

[Nibor6000]

If you are looking at big-name schools, then you should have a bullet-proof application. Since you have time to do it, I would encourage you to think about retaking the GRE. Probably not the news you wanted to hear, but how bad would you feel if you learned you weren't accepted due to your low verbal GRE score? Good luck!

[globalsun]

Have you considered Stanford or Berkeley? Their energy and environment programs are definitely superior to what is offer at Columbia, Yale, and perhaps Harvard due to superior hard science and engineering programs. They are also name brand institutions with more innovative curriculums than what can be found in the East Coast. Stanford offers a Masters in International Policy Studies and Berkeley has the Energy Resource Group Masters program.

Hey forum,

I am an international student who is planning to apply to MPAs and various other degrees (with a focus on energie, environment and economics) this year. Since I probably want to work back in Europe (or internationally) the name of the school and its international alumni network are quite a factor for me. The schools I am mostly interested are SIPA, HKS and Yale FES (with a dual degree). I am not sure how important the GRE is and would like to hear opinions if you think I should retake it.

I did well in the quantitative section (800) but didn't have time to exstensively prepare for the verbal part, so I did quite bad (430 and 4.0). I did okay on the IBT TOEFL with a 110 out of 120 but I still have doubts how schools will view my fair performance in the verbal section. Would you recommend me to re-take the GRE or spend the extra time on the rest of the application.

Any advice is appreciated!

[Cdot]

Thanks everybody. I guess I will call some admission offices, see what they say and then look into taking the GRE again. The potential return for investing more time for the verbal section seems just really low (for me).

Global Sun, thanks for the advice, Berkeley seems to be a good option for me.