Will the GREs bar me from WVU?

[Derfasciti]

Hey guys! I'm new here so apologies if this is the wrong section of the forum to post this on.

I'm looking for some feedback on my chances of getting in the WVU M.A. program for history. I'm tentatively looking to study 18th-20th century Russian and/or German history there and am planning on getting my Ph.D right after I get my masters. I'm a resident of West Virginia I'll hopefully be graduating Shepherd University this upcoming May. I've got a 3.6 overall GPA and a 3.6 GPA in the history program here. As for my languages, I've got 12 credits of French and 12 of German (two years respectively). My French is pretty horrible (almost non-existent) but my German's not bad as I took the summer intensive program here at shepherd. I've gotten a petition to go around the school to see if we can import a Russian professor to teach an intensive course over the upcoming Summer but whether or not that will actually happen is still unknown. The language opportunities here are pretty bad. Also, I have received the Marshall Foundation Scholarship which, along with a small sum of money, gives me the opportunity to do original research at the Lexington Marshall Archive on the Russian Civil War and America's involvement in the Kolchak government. I've been told that this looks good for grad school applications (any feedback on that?). I was also the secretary and am currently the president of Shepherd University's History Honor Society - Phi Alpha Theta Pi Epsilon Chapter. Finally, I'm scheduled to take the GRE at WVU tomorrow and right before that I will be meeting briefly with a faculty member there, Dr. Blobaum, who teaches Russian and Polish history just to kinda give him a face to the name on my application.

So knowing all of this, do you guys think my chances of getting in WVU are good? I'm very worried about the GRE as doing some practice tests have left me thinking that I won't do so well on it tomorrow. Do you think that will be a big factor in the decision to bring me aboard? Any tips or advice in general?

Thanks very much for any feedback you can offer!

P.S. Barring that, are there any other safe schools I can apply to?

[DrFaustus666]

You could possibly book an intensive course at one of the language schools in Europe (Apple Language School is one I know of). At their program, you study intensively, up to 6 or 8 hours per day, and live either in a college dorm or with a local family. For either French or Russian, I bet you could make some serious headway. And their price is not exorbitant (about $2500 for an 8-week course incl lodging, if I remember correctly).

And you only need to SAY that you plan to do this (then actually DO it) on your SOP.

As for GRE for history, no idea what WVU may want. Worldwide sores for 2003 (courtesy ETS) for incoming grad students in history:

MA Verbal

510: 50th percentile

580: 75th percentile

660: 90th percentile

690: 95th percentile

MA Quant

510: 50th percentile

590: 75th percentile

680: 90th percentile

710: 95th percentile

Doctoral Q scores are only 10-15 points higher than MA scores (shocker to me!)

Doctoral V scores are 560, 640, and 700 for 50th, 75th, and 90th percentile respectively