Colleges focusing on Writing Scores

[jmee011]

Hey everybody,

I am currently looking into schools for my masters in counseling psychology. For those schools that require you take the GRE, it states that they look at the writing scores. Does this mean I can only just take one section of the GRE, or would I have to take the verbal, math, and writing portions? Thank you!

[emmm]

You need to take all of them. I have never heard of any school looking ONLY at the writing score, though I have heard of schools that don't use the writing score at all.

[toby42]

I'm applying to a school of theology and they expressly stated that they, being a school of theology, will pay more attention to the writing and verbal since math is really of no concern to their program, but not to slough off the math section either. So I've been studying quite hard for the math section as well since I want to put my best foot forward and show them I'm not only half smart. ;o)

[edgirl]

What the schools mean by saying they consider writing scores is that they look at all three section scores (V, Q, AW). They're telling you this because many grad programs discount the writing score fairly heavily or entirely -- so the schools want to make sure that you put your best foot forward on the writing section, rather than assuming the AW score won't make a difference to your application. Thus, they are definitely not saying you can skip the V and Q sections, only that they also want you to do your best on the AW prompts.