GRE cut-offs

[chaetzli]

Has someone actually asked an admission committee member what cut-offs they have (if yes: please indicate the university and program)? It is almost impossible to find this information online and I don’t want to waste my money applying to programs where I don’t stand a chance. The “700+ on each section” is also not very helpful as 700Q is pretty low while 700V is absolutely excellent.

Thank you for your help!

[iowaguy]

I have a friend, prof in Intl. Business, on the adcom for a large university. He says their GRE cutoff for PhD students (business) is 80% verbal, 80% quant. Assuming enough applicants, GRE's below either of those thresholds go into the waste basket according to him...

Edited September 17, 2012 by iowaguy

[kaykaykay]

I only got the close or over 700 on each section, when I asked, sorry. I also objected the same way you do but it did not matter.Also being an international student does not matter apparently. It is not a hard cut-off, but you have to be close to be seriously considered (and I guess verbal can be somewhat lower than math ). This is from (several) top 3 university adcoms. +with the new GREs I guess percentiles will matter more. Maybe some other people have different info.

Edited September 17, 2012 by kaykaykay

[chaetzli]

@iowaguy and kaykaykay

Thank you so much for these insights! Anyone else?

[Usmivka]

State schools are required to post admissions statistics on their websites. These may or may not give you a cutoff and/or the average score for admitted and accepted students.

eg from the University of Washington Political Science department:

"Minimum Scores and GPA:

Most applicants who are admitted to the program have combined verbal and quantitative scores on the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) substantially higher than 1150 and a cumulative college grade point average greater than 3.4 (B+). As noted above, the Admissions Committee examines the complete set of materials for each applicant in order to identify promising individuals whose scores or grades might not fully represent their potential."

So there are real cutoffs, as above, and then there are de facto cutoffs, eg "we tend not to take anyone with less than 700s)."

When talking to the schools a better thing to ask for is the average score and GPA of admitted applicants for the most recent year available.

Edited September 17, 2012 by Usmivka

[Azarashi1]

Hi,

quite a few schools list in their websites list the median (or the average) and the range of the GRE scores of the previous year' (or so) applicants. At least for the programs I am interested in, it doesn't seem like they just throw away anything that isn't above 80 percent...but it's just my impression.

I also exchanged email with a canadian social psychology professor, and he told me that to get into his institution I needed to have al least 70% for quant and verbal (seems like nobody really cares about analytical writing...)

[Arezoo]

I asked the graduate coordinator of SUNY at Buffalo for the master's degree in linguistics, and she told me the average score is 1500 overall for all three sections. I don't know how they calculate the analytical writing section, but i really feel disappointed. It isn't a very top school in my major.

Edited September 18, 2012 by Arezoo

[chaetzli]

I asked the graduate coordinator of SUNY at Buffalo for the master's degree in linguistics, and she told me the average score is 1500 overall for all three sections. I don't know how they calculate the analytical writing section, but i really feel disappointed. It isn't a very top school in my major.

??? They are probably looking for a perfect 800V and 700Q?! I am not going to apply there .

Why can't schools just publish their cutoffs?! I know from a Harvard Business School prof that they have a 800Q cutoff and V doesn't count much.

[Arezoo]

??? They are probably looking for a perfect 800V and 700Q?! I am not going to apply there .

Why can't schools just publish their cutoffs?! I know from a Harvard Business School prof that they have a 800Q cutoff and V doesn't count much.

It isn't a very top school. At first, i was dubious whether i get it wrong or not, then i asked them again, and they told me they will take into account many other things besides the GRE. I'm an international student, and it's not fair to compare native speakers' scores to non-native speakers'.

Edited September 18, 2012 by Arezoo

[AmericanQuant]

UCSD publishes good statistics about GRE and GPA. I assume they are for admitted students, but I'm not sure.

http://polisci.ucsd.edu/grad/prospective-students/admissions-statistics.html

[RWBG]

I asked the graduate coordinator of SUNY at Buffalo for the master's degree in linguistics, and she told me the average score is 1500 overall for all three sections. I don't know how they calculate the analytical writing section, but i really feel disappointed. It isn't a very top school in my major.

This sounds like a throwback to when they had analytical as a separate part of the test (of three) on a 800 point scale; maybe they just haven't updated their average. It seems highly improbable to me that 1500 was the average otherwise.

[chaetzli]

But do we agree that UCSD is among the top pol.sci. departments?

BTW: what I really don't understand is that they want a high V-GRE but accept a TOEFL as low as 100...

Edited September 18, 2012 by swisschocolate

[catchermiscount]

If it is so that the use of the GRE is to whittle down the applicant pool, then would setting One Hard Number that is relatively unchanging from year to year be the right move? Why not just chop off the bottom half or so, which would vary?

[3221]

But do we agree that UCSD is among the top pol.sci. departments?

BTW: what I really don't understand is that they want a high V-GRE but accept a TOEFL as low as 100...

yes