Importance of Verbal GRE

[stackoverflow]

Hey all, I took the GRE this past week after two weeks of studying for only the quantitative part (I didn't think I would have enough time to study for the verbal portion). I scored a 770 on the quant and 490 on verbal. Is my verbal score going to hurt me a lot in my applications? I have a paper published and I'm hoping my SoP will be decent enough to supplement the poor score, but I'm wondering if anyone else had similar scores and knew what the results were.

Thanks!

[newms]

I don't think it'll hurt you much , if any. The admissions committees will be a lot more interested in the paper that you ave published, your SoP and your letters of recommendation.

[the poisoned pawn]

It probably won't matter for schools in the top 20-25, but the story could be different for lower rank schools. In any case, GRE is the least important among GPA, research experience, SoP and recommendation letter.

Don't get a too bad score because it may raise some red flags, but I think your score is fine given that you have a decent research experience, recommendation and a good academic standing.

[newms]

It probably won't matter for schools in the top 20-25, but the story could be different for lower rank schools.

This is true unfortunately - when I was applying I was considering applying to a school outside the top 50 and I had emailed them a few questions and they told me that GRE scores were one of the more important things they considered and they said that they didn't get many applicants with my verbal score (>700). So while it doesn't have much importance to top schools, some lower ranked schools seem to consider GRE scores more than one would think. I ended up not applying to that school.

To the OP, I think your scores are perfectly fine if the rest of your application is strong, ie your GPA, your research experience, your SoP and your letters of recommendation.

[stackoverflow]

This is true unfortunately - when I was applying I was considering applying to a school outside the top 50 and I had emailed them a few questions and they told me that GRE scores were one of the more important things they considered and they said that they didn't get many applicants with my verbal score (>700). So while it doesn't have much importance to top schools, some lower ranked schools seem to consider GRE scores more than one would think. I ended up not applying to that school.

To the OP, I think your scores are perfectly fine if the rest of your application is strong, ie your GPA, your research experience, your SoP and your letters of recommendation.

Thanks for the advice. My GPA is around 3.5, I've done at least 4 research courses in my undergrad (small, unknown program), and will be participating in an REU this summer. Hopefully this is enough to make up for my score, but I'm going to consider taking the test over again since I probably won't be looking at top schools (I'm assuming the rest of my application is lacking a little too much).

[newms]

Thanks for the advice. My GPA is around 3.5, I've done at least 4 research courses in my undergrad (small, unknown program), and will be participating in an REU this summer. Hopefully this is enough to make up for my score, but I'm going to consider taking the test over again since I probably won't be looking at top schools (I'm assuming the rest of my application is lacking a little too much).

I think you're underselling yourself. Research experience is the most important part of you application and it seems that you have solid research experience. It would be really helpful if you could get good letters from the profs you worked with on research courses and with the REU this summer - so do your best to impress at the REU this summer. I think you'd have a good shot at top 20 schools, so I would encourage you to apply to a few top 20 schools as well as some lower ranked ones that would be good fits for you.

[OH YEAH]

Thanks for the advice. My GPA is around 3.5, I've done at least 4 research courses in my undergrad (small, unknown program), and will be participating in an REU this summer. Hopefully this is enough to make up for my score, but I'm going to consider taking the test over again since I probably won't be looking at top schools (I'm assuming the rest of my application is lacking a little too much).

Could you elaborate more on your profile? What are your recommendations like? Did you do anything cool in your research courses? Where was your paper published, what author were you (or how much did you contribute)?

[stackoverflow]

Could you elaborate more on your profile? What are your recommendations like? Did you do anything cool in your research courses? Where was your paper published, what author were you (or how much did you contribute)?

My recommendations will be from professors that I have done research with, definitely one from the coauthor of my paper (of which I was the first author--and was the main contributor). My other research courses are very independent projects ranging in subject matter (networking, information retrieval, security, etc.).

[yamamotomiechan]

My verbal score was more worse.

My profile was GPA:3.8, GRE(Q:790, V:310, A:3.5), and one IEEE related conference paper(the first author). Moreover, I got another IEEE related conference paper(the first author) after applying. So I told this to universities I applied.

I could get accepted at UW-Madison and NCSU. However, I could not get any guaranteed funding.

I was put into a waiting list of Purdue.

Just in my opinion, the score of verbal GRE is not so important in terms of acceptance. However, low verbal score might hurt the possibility of getting funding.

This is just my opinion.

[OH YEAH]

Madison gave very few funding offers period. Most top universities (i.e., any private university) will guarantee funding if you are accepted.

[yamamotomiechan]

Sorry, my GPA is not 3.8, 3.7 I made a typo

I heard that half of the acceptance at Madison this year could get the guaranteed funding.

Additionally, in the second semester, many people get some funding

[newms]

Madison gave very few funding offers period. Most top universities (i.e., any private university) will guarantee funding if you are accepted.

The top public universities usually guarantee funding on acceptance as well, I guess UW-Madison was in a financial crunch this year.

[stackoverflow]

Thanks for all of the advice, guys. I just received my official scores and scored a 5.0 on the writing part. I think that, along with my publication and research experience will be enough to make up for my low verbal score. I'm leaning towards not retaking it, for fear that my math score will go down (and the new GRE will be in effect by the next time I can take it).

[wifey99999999]

Hey all, I took the GRE this past week after two weeks of studying for only the quantitative part (I didn't think I would have enough time to study for the verbal portion). I scored a 770 on the quant and 490 on verbal. Is my verbal score going to hurt me a lot in my applications? I have a paper published and I'm hoping my SoP will be decent enough to supplement the poor score, but I'm wondering if anyone else had similar scores and knew what the results were.

Thanks!

No. It won't matter much (although it's nice to have higher score). I had 770Q/490V, and I got into UPenn, U-Chicago, Cornell, Brown, U-Virginia (for masters degree program, though).

Edited July 8, 2011 by wifey99999999

[PyRO]

No. It won't matter much (although it's nice to have higher score). I had 770Q/490V, and I got into UPenn, U-Chicago, Cornell, Brown, U-Virginia (for masters degree program, though).

Thats awesome... Did u get any funding in those places ?? I screwed up my Quantitative part with silly Mistakes and it cost me dearly... I have 730Q !! 520V and 4.0 in AWA... How bad is it going to affect me ??

Thanks in Advance

[stackoverflow]

No. It won't matter much (although it's nice to have higher score). I had 770Q/490V, and I got into UPenn, U-Chicago, Cornell, Brown, U-Virginia (for masters degree program, though).

Good to hear. Were those all for masters programs? Or just U-Virginia?

[csperson]

This CS professor says " There is certainly a minimum verbal, but that is usually 500"

http://prisms.cs.uma...r/cs-admissions

I know guys who got into Berkeley with like 300ish verbal though

Edited July 10, 2011 by csperson

[csperson]

This is true unfortunately - when I was applying I was considering applying to a school outside the top 50 and I had emailed them a few questions and they told me that GRE scores were one of the more important things they considered and they said that they didn't get many applicants with my verbal score (>700). So while it doesn't have much importance to top schools, some lower ranked schools seem to consider GRE scores more than one would think. I ended up not applying to that school.

To the OP, I think your scores are perfectly fine if the rest of your application is strong, ie your GPA, your research experience, your SoP and your letters of recommendation.

GRE was one of the more important things they considered? This makes no sense. People who really want to do research should not apply to this school. If I were a prof, I wouldn't look at the GRE at all. It shows absolutely no research potential about the applicant. Especially the verbal score, what does it have to do with CS research?

Edited July 10, 2011 by csperson

[Amogh]

GRE was one of the more important things they considered? This makes no sense. People who really want to do research should not apply to this school. If I were a prof, I wouldn't look at the GRE at all. It shows absolutely no research potential about the applicant. Especially the verbal score, what does it have to do with CS research?

He did say that he was referring to a school outside of the top 50. Most of those schools dont have decent sized grants. They dont have the professors either(there are exceptions of course). So it is almost implied that if you want to do research, limit yourself to the top 50 schools.

[newms]

GRE was one of the more important things they considered? This makes no sense. People who really want to do research should not apply to this school. If I were a prof, I wouldn't look at the GRE at all. It shows absolutely no research potential about the applicant. Especially the verbal score, what does it have to do with CS research?

I agree, it was indeed strange. But it was an admissions assistant and not a professor who told me this, so maybe they didn't know exactly what the admissions committee considered and how they weighted the various aspects. In any case I didn't apply there, in part because I thought that if they considered the GRE so important, then that probably wasn't a place I would want to go to.

[PyRO]

This CS professor says " There is certainly a minimum verbal, but that is usually 500"

http://prisms.cs.uma...r/cs-admissions

I know guys who got into Berkeley with like 300ish verbal though

Im guessing the guys who got into berkeley had insane amounts of research work under their belt ??

[wifey99999999]

Good to hear. Were those all for masters programs? Or just U-Virginia?

all masters programs... and I got funding from UVa.

[unsuspected]

Considering that you got a 5.0 on AW (I think that's like 80th percentile) and that your verbal is not really that low for CS, I would strongly advise against retaking it. If you had something like Yamamotomiechan's score (V:310, A:3.5), though, I would have highly recommended retaking it. Your GRE scores are more than acceptable for the top schools. You should focus on your LoR and research.