Do I Retake?

[Pillai]

Dear all

A 1330 in GRE does not seem too bad. (or does it?). The score break up is what worries me. I managed a measly 640 in quants which translates into the 56^th percentile and a 690 in verbal which the score card says is the 97^th percentile. Even the AWA of 4 is well below what I would have been comfortable with.

I am an educator with over ten years of experience in teaching research, training and consultancy. I am actively involved in training programs for SMEs.

I am aiming at Ph.D programs in higher education. I am interested in working on higher education, especially business education for inclusive growth in emerging economies. I am zeroing in on HGSE, Stanford, Ohio State and Upenn.

I understand these are sought after programs and hence my query. Should I retake GRE?

[sophiemouse]

Dear all

A 1330 in GRE does not seem too bad. (or does it?). The score break up is what worries me. I managed a measly 640 in quants which translates into the 56^th percentile and a 690 in verbal which the score card says is the 97^th percentile. Even the AWA of 4 is well below what I would have been comfortable with.

I am an educator with over ten years of experience in teaching research, training and consultancy. I am actively involved in training programs for SMEs.

I am aiming at Ph.D programs in higher education. I am interested in working on higher education, especially business education for inclusive growth in emerging economies. I am zeroing in on HGSE, Stanford, Ohio State and Upenn.

I understand these are sought after programs and hence my query. Should I retake GRE?

It's easy to get caught up in GRE scores and GPAs, especially on this site, as the majority of applicants are within five to seven years of having graduated undergrad and GRE and GPA can be more defining in their chances than work experience, thus maybe a bit overemphasized. Not that they aren't deciding factors, but admissions folks tend to not weigh those as heavily, once you have significant work experience in a leadership capacity. They also recognize that the longer you have been out of school, particularly for quant, the more difficult it is to get a higher score.

That said, for a PHD, you still need high everything as it is very competitive, particularly at the schools you mentioned. Having a MA, amazing work experience and significant research under your belt AND more importantly, research interests that match a professor's at the schools you mentioned, are really the deciding factors. Since you have time before you would be able to apply, I would research schools that match your interest, zero in on those professors, and take it from there. You can take the GRE again.

As far as your scores, your verbal is competitive, quantitative is higher than most people who have been out of school for ten years (that's why the percentage is so low, you are not only "competing" with students just out of college but also applicants who need high quantitative to get into physics, math, etc.). For what you want to do, the AWA is lower than they like.

[oiseauaudio]

HI there,

I think for certain schools, such as Stanford and UPenn, they look for competitive GRE scores, particularly for PhD applicants.

I think you'd certainly have an excellent shot at Master's programs, but like Sophiemouse said, you're also competing with other applicants, who might have similar work experience and scores. It's a tough call. I didn't do well on the GRE, and was rejected from Stanford and UPenn for PhD programs, but accepted at HGSE for a Master's. I think it would be worth your while to re-take the GRE, if you are concerned about it.

Good luck!!!

[ZeChocMoose]

Dear all

A 1330 in GRE does not seem too bad. (or does it?). The score break up is what worries me. I managed a measly 640 in quants which translates into the 56^th percentile and a 690 in verbal which the score card says is the 97^th percentile. Even the AWA of 4 is well below what I would have been comfortable with.

I am an educator with over ten years of experience in teaching research, training and consultancy. I am actively involved in training programs for SMEs.

I am aiming at Ph.D programs in higher education. I am interested in working on higher education, especially business education for inclusive growth in emerging economies. I am zeroing in on HGSE, Stanford, Ohio State and Upenn.

I understand these are sought after programs and hence my query. Should I retake GRE?

To be honest, I wouldn't be too concerned with your GRE scores. They are decent. I might be a little concerned with your quantitative score if your plan is to do a quantitative dissertation, but I don't think I would be so concerned to tell you to take it again. In the grand scheme of things, I don't think GREs are that heavily weighted for higher ed PhD programs.

The biggest factor (I think) for getting into a competitive higher ed PhD program is you need to demonstrate your research capacity through relevant research experience, presenting at national/regional conferences, and writing up articles for publication. It also is helpful to have professional experience in the field of higher ed and to demonstrate a good fit with your research interests to specific faculty members. That being said your stated research interests of looking at "business education for inclusive growth in emerging economies" seems very narrow. Have you found faculty members that are doing this work at the institutions that you are interested in? I would urge you to broaden your focus a bit and be open to looking at other topics that you can explore in your PhD as well as the one that you have stated. Ideally, you want to find 2-4 professors that you would like to work with and you have a good research match with.

Lastly, do you have a master's degree in a related field? While a lot of the programs don't require you to earn a master's degree, most (if not all) PhD students in competitive higher ed programs tend to have them-- usually they are in higher ed or some related education field.

Good luck!

[Pillai]

Lastly, do you have a master's degree in a related field? While a lot of the programs don't require you to earn a master's degree, most (if not all) PhD students in competitive higher ed programs tend to have them-- usually they are in higher ed or some related education field.

Good luck!

I am an MBA who has been teaching for the last ten years. More than my quants, it is my AWA score that worries me. Based on your replies, I can see that my score is neither here nor there score and for the schools I am targetting, I will need a "definitely there" score. I do understand that GRE score is only one component in the application package. I guess I will start working on my SOPs. LORs and maybe take the GRE again!

By the way, based on my 1330 and profile what kind of consideration can I expect from Curry SOE, University of Virginia.

[t_ruth]

I've heard most schools don't really look at the writing score. People who have a more sophisticated writing style tend to do poorly--but that would be demonstrated in your SOP. If that is well-written, why would they care about the 4?

[ZeChocMoose]

I am an MBA who has been teaching for the last ten years. More than my quants, it is my AWA score that worries me. Based on your replies, I can see that my score is neither here nor there score and for the schools I am targetting, I will need a "definitely there" score. I do understand that GRE score is only one component in the application package. I guess I will start working on my SOPs. LORs and maybe take the GRE again!

By the way, based on my 1330 and profile what kind of consideration can I expect from Curry SOE, University of Virginia.

From my friends who are applying, enrolled, or alumni from MBA programs, I understand why you place that much emphasis on standardized tests. For PhD programs (however), standardized tests don't get you into your program of choice. Instead admission committees are more concerned with the notion of program "fit." Therefore, you really need to seek out faculty members who research what you are interested in and apply to those schools. (It is unclear to me whether you have done this homework or not.) Then, I recommend contacting faculty members and current students in the schools that you are interested in to talk more about the program and the opportunities available. If it sounds like the program is a good fit for you, apply. If not, keep looking! I researched about 8 programs this way and only applied to 3 schools where I thought there was a great "fit." It is time-intensive, but hopefully it will give you good results.

Good luck!