DON'T PANIC

[mrsplant]

I love Douglas Adams

Anyway, I am panicking a little bit and desperately need your guys' advice. I consider myself a competitive applicant, with a good deal of development work experience in a foreign (developing) country. I'm planning to apply to two-three government programs that I would love to get into.

This is where the problem comes in - I took the GRE today and did much worse than I expected. I got a 153 quant and 160 verbal. That being said, the opposite is actually true about my qualifications - I went into college as an intended math major (though I ended up only minoring in the end), and one of my LoRs will actually be from a math professor who I worked with. On the other hand, English is more of a second language for me so I'm surprised to have gotten a higher verbal score, especially on my first try.

What I'm wondering is (even though I have heard repeatedly that the GREs are just one aspect of the application) whether this can in some way disqualify my previous math experience. Will it be used as a weightier indicator of my abilities to tackle quantitative work than my academic experience? If not, how will it be regarded?

I would really appreciate some feedback! Thanks and sorry if the title of the post misled anyone

[MYRNIST]

I mean, its never a positive to do poorly on the GRE. So it certainly will hurt you. But there are many other ways you can demonstrate quant proficiency - the math minor, lots of quant classes, LOR from professor, emphasizing its use in your previous jobs. All of our applications have warts on them, it's all about you minimize them.

[Fell4Ever]

Considering that quant scores in the 160 range are still below 80%, I do not think you have anything to worry about. Just own your application and go for it. Do you really think its going to disqualify you - no you don't. That's why you're here. That's why you called yourself a competitive applicant And that's why you listed your experiences in this post - all leading up to how your HORRIBLE gre score - which many would kill for - will disqualify you.

You said it yourself - everyone mentions that it is just one part of the application - sometimes the most important, sometimes not. So just write your statement of purpose. Have faith in your LoR and your transcripts, 'Don't Panic', and send in your applications.

What are you going to do? Not apply .Makes no sense.

[mrsplant]

thanks so much Fell4Ever - i really appreciate that. i'm pretty confident about the rest of my application so i'm going for it. we'll see how it all turns out

MYRNIST, you're right as well - i just hope it won't hurt too much