What GRE cutoff scores are you aware of?

[We regret to inform you]

Just curious what programs we've all applied to that have listed their GRE cutoffs and what they may be.

Unfortunately, none of my programs give any indication of a minimum GRE cutoff. How about yours?

[applyingfromtexas]

typically the grad school has minimums and the individual program's average depends on the strength of applicants

[duckiesandbees]

One of the programs I applied to basically said don't bother paying the application fee if your score isn't at least 1200. Another recommended scores in the double digits (as in over 1000). Obviously this is the old scoring system so I'm not sure what that equates to now.

[MediaMom]

Most of the schools I looked into said that they did not have a specific cut off, but had some vague wording about admitted applicants being in the "competitive" range. Whatever that means. One of the schools I applied to said something like, "consider a combined score of 1100 to be a good starting point," and my combined score is 1290, so I took that to mean that I was probably in good shape all around. The one school where I thought my scores might be a problem has already accepted me.

[Eigen]

1000, 1100 and 1200 are the official and "general" cutoffs I'm aware of at several different schools. I think by and large a score above 1200 means you're probably safe.

[slaNYC]

I just thought I'd jump into this discussion. From my experience schools say things like, as others have mentioned, "average scores of admitted students were..." or "competitive applicants should have...." I will say though that competitive scores are different for masters programs and PhD programs within the same school. So while a website might say a combined score of 1200 is competitive, PhD applicants might need greater than 1300. But as many have pointed out on this site in other discussions, I doubt the scores are a very important aspect of one's application (except if someone were to have exceptional/perfect scores).

Edited February 17, 2012 by slaNYC

[Kitkat]

I think that for the programs that I was looking at, there were no cutoffs. At the same time, there were average GRE scores of admitted students at some of them. And it seemed that at the competitive schools they were generally ~1300-1350 at the competitive schools for PhDs.

[habanero]

Cutoffs at Georgia Tech were above the 85th percentile.

[Quantumcross]

Cutoffs at Georgia Tech were above the 85th percentile.

Don't say that, I got 84th% on my quant...

[hitomimay]

All schools I applied to (not sure if it's just because it's Education) claimed to have no cut-offs for GREs and GPAs. It truly is a combination of everything, which seriously worked in my favor. However, I'd say 1250 is a safe starting point for most PhDs, not sure about Masters programs though. You can always check their class profiles and see their average GRE/GPA scores and go from there. For instance, Harvard's Education Masters averages were a combined score of 1260, while their PhD students were 1390. I think that should give you a general idea of where you should fall depending on the competitiveness of the program and school you choose to apply to.

[Airwick]

Harvard alludes to a pseudo-cutoff tho... "If your GRE scores are significantly low (i.e., below 460 V, 580 Q, and 3.5 AW), your chances for admission will be greatly reduced." Those scores are painfully low so I couldn't see it being an issue for many applicants.

Edited February 20, 2012 by Airwick

[alicejcw]

People generally cite 1000 as the cut-off for SLP Master's programs, but I was more concerned with the averages listed for each school, which for me ranged from 1100-1300. I scored well above the averages, but of course, that doesn't guarantee that I'll get in anywhere

[MediaMom]

It's worth noting that when talking with friends of mine who are either faculty members or PhD students, most of them agreed that while the GRE may not factor in heavily for admission decisions, they are often very important in deciding on funding. This may just be for my field (communication), but one faculty member in another discipline also told me this.

[habanero]

Don't say that, I got 84th% on my quant...

This was for the College of Computing (PhD), and you applied to the Physics department! No fears!

[TropicalCharlie]

I'm in science, and most programs that I applied to say they don't have a set minimum. However, upon inquiring further via email, I was told by one school that they'd like to see around 1000 combined and 1100 by another school. It just depends on your program and also how competitive it is. I don't think a mediocre gre score is going to automatically place you in the reject pile as long as the rest of your application package makes up for it.

[aberrant]

i've been told that an above-50% on subject test will be okay, unless you are an international applicant, then you may want to have at least 80% for your subject test.

i've also been told that for physical science programs, on or above 80% in quant is a must. Thus far, I heard nobody who applied to an engineering program have a sub-760 in quant. I also noticed that many prestigious schools required a +500 in verbal section, regardless if you are a domestic/international applicant.

[Tiglath-Pileser III]

In the year that I applied to Johns Hopkins, the Ancient Near East department had a GRE cutoff of a combined 1350. And while I had a score above that cutoff, I have only been accepted to schools where the GRE was not considered at all. I don't think my GRE scores hurt my chances but they didn't seem to help either. I don't think that the GRE plays as big a factor as ETS would like us all to believe.

My only concern would be for students who have a very low score in a certain area. I've seen it used as a way to whittle down the pool of applicants, i.e., to administratively reject students with less than a 500 on verb/quant or a 4.0 in writing. Nobody wants a graduate student who cannot write an essay, read a graph, or understand the vocabulary in a journal article. Such students are a drain on the system, and such administrative rejections are indeed justified. Some admission committees are even savvy enough to understand that the GRE is a test that can be studied for, and a low score could be perceived as a sign of a student's lack of preparedness; also a justifiable reason for a rejection as it forecasts how a student's prioritizes his/her preparation for a major exam.

Most schools do not publish their GRE cutoffs; however, a lot of schools publish the averages of the GRE scores for students that are admitted. You'll find that at a lot of major universities the average can be remarkably low, e.g., 1150 for the PhD program. This should tell us that a lot more goes into making these decisions than just the GRE scores. In fact I think the most important factors to admissions are (a ) grades, yes grades do count, (b ) how does the student express his research intent, and (c ) what does his recommendations say about the student. I had an adviser of mine once tell me, "If I receive a recommendation from prof. X, I know he is going to give me a frank assessment of the student's abilities. He doesn't mince words. If he says that the student will perform well, I can bank on it." There is a "street cred" among scholars that is still worth more than the artificial results garnered by the GRE.

Edited February 29, 2012 by Tiglath-Pileser III

[We regret to inform you]

In the year that I applied to Johns Hopkins, the Ancient Near East department had a GRE cutoff of a combined 1350.

That's the highest i've ever heard.

[spark1989]

This was for the College of Computing (PhD), and you applied to the Physics department! No fears!

I dont think so. I'm admitted to GT CSE, Phd, My verbal score was ~50 and quant> 90. I dont think schools give any weight to gre, other than the minimum univ requirement. Atleast, this is my experience. On princeton cs website, I do remember seeing that we dont give weight to gres