Chances?

[remrocks87]

Hi, I am a second year Masters student currently studying Biomedical Anthropology. I was hoping to apply to Epidemiology phD programs this year but now after taking my GRE I am not so sure. I got a 1360 total but received a 640 quantitative which I know is very low. However, I have a 3.85 GPA, I got an A in Advanced Multivariate Statistics last year and will have two publications by the end of this year. Additionally I have helped with Chronic Wasting Disease research and worked heavily with statistics for the published papers.

My question is, should I bother applying to phD programs with such a low score? Or should I maybe stick to MPH programs instead. Any thoughts would be very much appreciated, thank you.

[newms]

I'm not entirely sure about your field, but while applicants in the sciences are expected to have a pretty good quant score, the GRE isn't a particularly important part of your application. I think admissions committees will be much more interested in your 2 publications than your GRE score. That said, for peace of mind, it might make sense to do over the GRE and try to get your quant to at least 700 and there is still time to do that this application season, so your 640 should not stop you from applying to PhD programs.