Retaking GRE (for fulbright international applicant)

[gadjayh]

Hi All, greetings from Indonesia...

I know that this is one of never ending questions. But I am really in dilemma right now and really need your help/opinion. I am one of fulbright principle candidates from Indonesia with BSc in chemical engineering from Bandung Institute of Technology. I did my GRE before and scored modest number for two section of GRE test (Q=720, V=530), but I got poorly 3 (which is 10% below) for AWA. The fulbright committee has plan to submit my application into these universities (for its chemical and /or environmental engineering program) : Penn State, NC State, Washington State, Oregon State. And I am permitted to apply for other universities I intend to, by myself (in this case UF, U Maryland, or U Washington)

Regarding this GRE score, the committe decided for me not to retake it (unlike several other candidates who scored below 1200 for Q+V and are requested to do so). But i am bit worried about my Quantitative and AW score which is basically below standard of some universities. My GPA is only decent (, thus I really hope I could boost the chance to get admitted with better GRE, however if I plan to retake it then I will need to do it with my own responsibility as committee did not suggest it (own cost, lower score risks, etc).

SO in conclusion, do I really need to retake it and is it really worth to try? and does AWA score contribute that much to engineering program's admission?

Thank you

[eklavya]

i do not know much about how fulbright works. however, i do know that if you have decent enough gpa, gre scores and good LoRs, you'll get into almost any schools because you have funding. and not any type of funding, the highly acclaimed fullbright. your gpa and gre would matter more in cases where you'd be applying for fellowship or ta/ra-ship or research grant to fund your studies. and you'd be screened in the same way as they do with all other applicants, which could have altered/reduced your fate of getting into your school of choice. but that's not the case. so i don't think retaking it is necessary.

if you are really worried about your low AW and Q scores, perhaps you can email some professors you want to work with, and see what they have to say. if you show enthusiasm in their work, and if the profs see that your academic record fit with what they are doing, i don't see why they'd not be interested in you. again, the important fact here is that you already have money. so the profs won't have to go around looking for money to support you. this should go very well with you imo.

good luck!