High Q, Low V: Does it matter?

[elmambo]

Hi, I'm a foreign student and I'm planning to apply to a Phd program in economics. Recently I took the GRE test and I scored 800 in the quantitative section, but only 430 in the verbal section. I don't know my AW score yet, I took the test last week.

Is this low score important? I need to take the TOEFL test, so I suppose a high score in this test would offset the poor result in the Verbal section. Besides, the fact that most grad schools ask for the TOEFL test as a measure of your english knowledge, makes me thing they don't care much about the verbal section of the GRE.

Is this true? Anyone knows something about it?

Edited July 28, 2011 by elmambo

[Kitkat]

I think that since you are a foreign student wanting to get into an economics department, the verbal score really wont hurt you that much. As long as you do well with the TOEFL exam, and write a good SOP, I don't think it should be that huge of a deal. As a note, from the sounds of it, you seem to have a pretty good command of the language. It just might be an issue of not knowing enough of the vocabulary that the GRE wants you to know, but in your case, they might be more concerned about your ability to understand the coursework, and possibly teach. If you can do that, then you should be fine.

[kaykaykay]

you should ask this from econ majors too. in poli sci the competition is big enough that they do look at the V of foreign students. on the other hand no one cares about the TOEFL as that is usually high for serious applicants.