GRE and Engineering

[Haustier]

So I was curious (keep in mind I'm referencing only engineering departments), but do my GRE scores really even matter at all? I was told by 3/5 of the top 5 engineering schools that they are weighted incredibly low. As a matter of fact, Ga Tech inferred that they don't even look at them at all. I've heard that the GPA of your Math courses far far out weight the GRE period. Also, out of the 9 schools I've applied to only 3 required official GRE scores. The reason I ask is my verbal and analytical scores were great (84, and 86%), but my math score was horrible (only 580). However I've got a 4.0 in all of my math course (up through Calc 3 and Diff Eq.). So I would think the math GPA would trump the GRE scores, any opinions?

[barber5]

To a fairly large extent in a lot of engineering disciplines GRE doesn't matter much at all and a reasonably high GPA is a necessary but nowhere near sufficient for getting into the top 5 or so.

Even though it's specifically for CS, you might want to read this so you can get an idea that a lot of programs (PhD in CS in particular, but this must generalize to some degree) are looking more for solid recommendations (not "this person got a 100 in my class") and other evidence of being able to do research.