Verbal VS Math

[George2248]

Ok, I just took the new GRE with my brother and we did good, close to our expectations, with the only problem that my brother Verbal scores where a bit too low. Verbal is specially hard because our English is not that good, and it is already hard for native English speakers.

Since we are planning to apply to Engineering Management Programs, were Math is the main requisite. My question is:

• How important is the Verbal scores for Top Engineering Programs like BERKELEY, DUKE, COLUMBIA, ILINOIS and CORNELL?
  
  • Do they take into consideration the fact that international students are expected to do worst in verbal?
    
    • If he got great math scores, and good TOEFL scores, is it really necessary to retake the test only to get a better VERB scores?
      

    [*]Is it true that graduate departments look to GRE scores as a whole sum of both VERB and MATH, being 1400 the scores required for top Universities? or do they consider each score separetly and in context with the program specialty?

    The basic question is: do VERB scores are really that important to Engineering Programs? should my brother retake the test?

    My brother socores were: 710-800 MATH, and 300-390 VERB.

    My scores were: 740-800 MATH, and 630-730 VERB.

[George2248]

Any feedback? Maybe some personal experiences or advice?

[kaykaykay]

Toefl scores do not matter, they are good for virtually everyone.

[gellert]

Not an engineering major, but it's my understanding that in the quant-heavy programs, adcomms don't really care about verbal scores. 300-390 is a bit low even WITH that, but for an int'l student it's probably not that big of a deal. I've heard some schools don't even look at verbal scores at all.

US schools will require int'l students to take the TOEFL, though, which will test proficiency in the English language and schools will put more emphasis on how he scores on that test than his verbal GRE. The only thing of concern would be making sure his total GRE is above whatever minimum cutoff the graduate school (not the dept) has to allow admission into the program. Also, a lot of the time funding is GRE score-dependent so if he's interested in possibly receiving a fellowship he might want to retake the test.

[George2248]

Not an engineering major, but it's my understanding that in the quant-heavy programs, adcomms don't really care about verbal scores. 300-390 is a bit low even WITH that, but for an int'l student it's probably not that big of a deal. I've heard some schools don't even look at verbal scores at all.

US schools will require int'l students to take the TOEFL, though, which will test proficiency in the English language and schools will put more emphasis on how he scores on that test than his verbal GRE. The only thing of concern would be making sure his total GRE is above whatever minimum cutoff the graduate school (not the dept) has to allow admission into the program. Also, a lot of the time funding is GRE score-dependent so if he's interested in possibly receiving a fellowship he might want to retake the test.

So there is an combined scores minimum cutoff? I really dont understand how they can sum both scores from to completely different sections of the test. This combined score seem rather arbitrary.

Do you have any idea what is this cutoff scores for the top graduate schools?

[gellert]

^ Keep in mind that I'm NOT from engineering, so if a school has a separate engineering school this could be completely wrong, or if they make exception for people in engineering/math/hard sciences. In psychology, the cutoff for total GRE at top schools is about 1350. Again, not necessarily true for top grad schools in engineering -- I'd google it if I were you; I suspect the information is very readily available with a simple google search. Schools will, under their application FAQs, often say what sort of minimum GRE score they recommend for prospective applicants.

You could also look at the TGC Results Survey and filter for engineering majors to see what kind of scores have been accepted/rejected recently.

ETA: Someone's started a general applicant discussion thread on the Engineering forum Might be a good idea to ask over there.

Edited September 27, 2011 by gellert