Do they humanities disciplines care about my math score?

[hannahbaldwin1]

Hello. I took the GRE in January and scored high on writing, in the 86 percentile on the verbal section and incredibly low on the quant section. (I've done no math since high school and had problems with it even then). I'm applying for art history PhD programs, which don't require you to do math. My writing sample is pretty strong, my references are good and my GPA was 3.6 overall (I think it was 3.8 in my art history major). Should I retake the GRE? I don't think my math score will improve much. Will schools accept me? I've been told not to worry about it by grad students and a professor but I'm still freaking out... Any thought?

[cunninlynguist]

First of all, well done on the Verbal section and your GPA looks quite solid. What are your exact scores, and percentiles, for the Math and Writing sections? (Not like the Writing portion is that important, just curious; and it could help your case if you did very well on it).

The only thing I would be concerned about is that you're applying to PhD programs, which generally have higher and more stringent requirements regarding minimum test scores. Unless you'd be able to convince them to consider you in lieu of a score that's lower than their requirement due to other strong admissions factors, I think you may have to re-take it (and that depends on your exact score and percentile - it could seem bad to you, but not completely bad in an absolute sense).

[bulev]

Hello. I took the GRE in January and scored high on writing, in the 86 percentile on the verbal section and incredibly low on the quant section. (I've done no math since high school and had problems with it even then). I'm applying for art history PhD programs, which don't require you to do math. My writing sample is pretty strong, my references are good and my GPA was 3.6 overall (I think it was 3.8 in my art history major). Should I retake the GRE? I don't think my math score will improve much. Will schools accept me? I've been told not to worry about it by grad students and a professor but I'm still freaking out... Any thought?

with all due respect, why don't you think you can improve your math score? If you're smart enough to pull a 3.6 at the university level, you are smart enough to learn basic arithmetic/algebra/geometry.

[Mal83]

with all due respect, why don't you think you can improve your math score? If you're smart enough to pull a 3.6 at the university level, you are smart enough to learn basic arithmetic/algebra/geometry.

Just to throw in my 2 cents about learning the math on the quant section...it seemed to me like I had to relearn 4 years of high school math all over again, I was decent at it then but we're talking like 10 years ago here and it was quite a chore getting reacquainted with all of the possible different problem types that were in the study books. Plus there were all of the rules and formulas to relearn in order to attack the problems, they were kind of floating around in my head but it just wasn't solid like it was when I was actually doing it on a daily basis in secondary school for years. If you didn't have to do much of it as an undergrad then that's a good 4 years that you're not using that stuff. But like I said, for me it was more like 10 years, graduated high school in '01 and took the GRE in December of 2010. So I found the whole thing to be very overwhelming as well as pointless for my field (international development). Sure some of it was intuitive and easily relearned, but there was just too much of it and I had to work very hard for an OK score. But that one score on that test doesn't reflect the work you've done for 4 years as an undergrad at all if you're not in math or science and a high gpa doesn't necessarily translate into the ability to score high on a particular type of test.

To the OP, you should contact admissions at your schools of choice to ask them about how they weigh the quant section of the GRE or usually there something about the GRE requirements and averages on their websites. My combined GRE score, while OK, was a good 150 points below my top choice's average, but I still got in off of the waitlist to their phenomenal program. I mean GRE math is just not going to come into play in my area of study so there's not much weight to it, and I'd think the same of your subject, well at least that's my take on it. I feel like it's one of things that can boost you application a little bit if some other area is lacking or if they have to make a choice between similarly qualified applicants.

[Lord Horatio]

Based on what I'm seeing on the websites for various English Ph.D. Programs, they are not nearly as interested in applicant scores on the quantitative section of the GRE. Below I've pasted two instances where these grad programs state that they are primarily interested in the verbal score. Mind you, these are just two examples, and I would certainly agree with Mal83 that you should contact admissions at the schools you specifically want to know about.

From the UC Davis English Department website:

"NOTE: There is no required minimum GRE score for applications. In practice, most of our successful applicants have a verbal GRE score above 600, an analytic score above 5.0, and a subject test score above 550. (Math score is irrelevant.) The most important element of the application is the writing sample. An outstanding writing sample and overall strong application do in some cases lead us to overlook GRE scores that do not reflect the quality of the application as a whole."

From the Duke University English Department website:

"The average GRE scores of students entering our program in a recent year were Verbal 670, Quantitative 640, Writing (new analytical) 5.72, but there is wide variation among the students we accept. There is no special reason for concern if your quantitative score is considerably lower than your verbal score."

[natsteel]

[based on what I'm seeing on the websites for various English Ph.D. Programs, they are not nearly as interested in applicant scores on the quantitative section of the GRE. Below I've pasted two instances where these grad programs state that they are primarily interested in the verbal score. Mind you, these are just two examples, and I would certainly agree with Mal83 that you should contact admissions at the schools you specifically want to know about.

This is the impression I've gotten as well. The only caveat is that if the department does not have universal funding, you will be competing for university-level funding, which often have combined GRE requirements. For example, a professor I was in contact with at OSU told me that my 1220 combined score (660V and 560Q) might not be good enough to secure a university fellowship. I've heard a lot of people say that the average minimum cutoff for this is 1200, but keep in mind that is a generalization. That would be a question you could put to admissions.