GRE: invitation out of the blue

[Sirius]

When taking GRE, I filled out a survey, as some of other test takers did, I am sure. My GRE score turned out fairly high, but I did not get admitted anywhere I had applied. Now, a few days ago I unexpectedly got an e-mail from Pace University inviting me to apply to grad school there (deadline is June 1, so there is plenty of time). According to this e-mail, they contacted me because of that GRE survey I had filled out.

Anyway, I am curious: how many people hear got invitations like that, and from what universities?

[hannah]

Received a letter from the U. of Florida after taking GRE, I think the same type of thing.

[unknownscholar]

First, my scores: 480V,650Q, 3.5A--not noteworthy to say the least.

I've heard from: Pace, UPenn, The New School, NYU, MIT, CMU, and several other graduate programs who's school I've never ever heard of.

And my LSAT scores are even worse, but all the schools I heard from through the survey service had Tier 3 programs, some of which I applied to and wasn't accepted. This is why I didn't bother applying to any grad schools that weren't already on my list. Sending scores gets expensive.

In general, I wouldn't place too much stock in these, because it's not necessarily that they know anything else about you, other than your GRE score, which isn't as telling about a person's background (it's not even required for all graduate programs). However, if you're really interested in the school you hear from, use their email to your advantage, get app fees waived, get acquainted with the contact person, and make them work for you. Never a bad idea.

Good Luck :-)

[normajean]

I got sent a shitload of stuff. RIT bombarded me with e-mails. And I got mail and e-mail from random schools I'd never heard of. I even got stuff from MIT, Penn, etc. I don't think it means they're particularly interested in you (no offense) so much as they send stuff automatically to people with certain scores and interests.

[UndraftedFreeAgent]

Based on the GRE a few years ago, Rutgers Law offered me admission "as part of a pilot program to see if the GRE is a good substitute for the LSAT" even though I wasn't applying to law schools.

I've also been flooded with mailings from "Smith College of Social Work" trying to get me to apply to their PhD program. I took the GRE in June 2005 and they've been sending letters to my parents' house pretty much every month since. Again, I expressed no interest in social work, but I think the survey asked for hours spent volunteering in a given week or something like that

[rising_star]

Undrafted,

Smith actually has an outstanding reputation in social work! Have they offered you funding and, if so, can I pretend to be you?

[UndraftedFreeAgent]

Wow, then I guess their marketing director needs to be fired, because their pamphlets make them look only slightly better than University of Phoenix Online. But Smith wasn't directly offering admission, that was Rutgers. Smith just keeps sending application materials. I don't know how they are about funding, because after the first letter, I've just been throwing their stuff in the recycling as soon as I get it.

[anese]

When taking GRE, I filled out a survey, as some of other test takers did, I am sure. My GRE score turned out fairly high, but I did not get admitted anywhere I had applied. Now, a few days ago I unexpectedly got an e-mail from Pace University inviting me to apply to grad school there (deadline is June 1, so there is plenty of time). According to this e-mail, they contacted me because of that GRE survey I had filled out.

Anyway, I am curious: how many people hear got invitations like that, and from what universities?

I got an invitation from University of Michigan's IS PhD/MS program after I took mine. They also put up a nice blog and webpage for me to encourage my interest in their program. I have no wish to study IS in my graduate work, and to behonest I think I wouldn't even be able to maintain the min GPA required for graduate study in that field. However, it was a pretty gratifying experience to be asked.

I think alot of schools send out invitations like this if they think the students are particularly unique or well-suited to study with them. I'm not quite sure how unique of a candidate I would be-- but I have a BS in History and Policy, scored very well on GRE and attended Carnegie Mellon University (mostly known for techies and fine arts)--so maybe the prospect of a history major who took alot of policy classes and programming appealed to them. I'm also a woman--so that's another bee in my university bonnet that would have made my app stand out. BUT I digress, this is all speculation.

If anything else, these emails are a nice story to share.

[Quarex]

When did you take the GRE? I took it in 2003 (my scores even expired just before I officially accepted an offer; I totally beat the system!) and absolutely do not have any idea what you are talking about. This must be something new, as my scores were higher than Unknownscholar's and I never heard anything from anyone about anything, though I certainly would have filled out a survey if there had been one, since I love surveys so much.

[anese]

When did you take the GRE? I took it in 2003 (my scores even expired just before I officially accepted an offer; I totally beat the system!) and absolutely do not have any idea what you are talking about. This must be something new, as my scores were higher than Unknownscholar's and I never heard anything from anyone about anything, though I certainly would have filled out a survey if there had been one, since I love surveys so much.

I took the GRE in November 2007--but I don't think my offer was based on a survey, because I'm pretty sure I skipped it. I just had my scores sent to U-Mich because I was applying to them for another program.