Philosophy Ph.D. applications for Fall 2025 - How high should GREs be for me to include them, since they're optional?

[flankfort]

Hey folks,

GRE scores are optional for all the philosophy Ph.D. programs I'm applying to this year, but I've heard a good score can boost your application slightly.

Are my scores high enough to be worth mentioning? If not for all programs, at least for less competitive ones?

Here are my GRE scores (taken in 2021):

• Verbal: 167/170 (97th percentile)
• Quantitative: 154/170 (36th percentile🏆)
• Analytical Writing: 5.0/6.0 (92nd percentile)
• Total (sans Writing): 321

For context, I'm applying to programs with strengths in 19th century philosophy (e.g., Yale, Chicago, UC Riverside, Northwestern, as well as some Continental programs like DePaul and Penn State) with a writing sample on Hegel. So they're not expecting me to be doing anything with that low math score.

Thanks for any pointers!

 

[I am not a gradstudent]

My uneducated reaction to this is that the verbal score is laudable and should most likely be a bit ahead of the pack. I agree that the quant score isn't great but eh. As long as you're right that you're not doing anything math-heavy.

Analytical writing is probably fine too.

As someone who is doing masters apps - I think it should help your case, so much that your verbal is indeed ahead of the 50th percentile in your app competition.