GRE Verbal Scores... do they matter?

[gomeperez]

In a few days I'll be doing my GRE and to be honest I'm not feeling confident about the Verbal section (expecting some mediocre score), so I was wondering if verbal scores matter in the Applied sciences and Mathematics?

I've read some CS grad requirements mentioning minimum Quant and Analytical Writing scores, but I've never read anything about verbal.

[emmm]

Yes, they matter. How important they are to the programs you're interested in . . . impossible to tell.

[iowaguy]

The better the school, the more they matter, IMHO... i.e. if applying to XYZ state school, probably not a huge deal; OTOH if applying to top schools, could be a big deal if you have a score that's not in line with the rest of your (hopefully) strong application...

[R Deckard]

The better the school, the more they matter, IMHO... i.e. if applying to XYZ state school, probably not a huge deal; OTOH if applying to top schools, could be a big deal if you have a score that's not in line with the rest of your (hopefully) strong application...

It's really the other way around.

[iowaguy]

It's really the other way around.

Not sure why you think i'ts the other way around. Statistically speaking, looking at the admission statistics from top schools, they don't take too many with sub-par GRE scores, otherwise they couldn't maintain their averages of 160+V, 160+Q. OTOH, state schools admit lots of sub-par GRE's and their lower average GRE scores attest to that...

[R Deckard]

Not sure why you think i'ts the other way around. Statistically speaking, looking at the admission statistics from top schools, they don't take too many with sub-par GRE scores, otherwise they couldn't maintain their averages of 160+V, 160+Q. OTOH, state schools admit lots of sub-par GRE's and their lower average GRE scores attest to that...

The top candidates typically have high GRE scores. The top schools typically don't place a lot of value on these scores... they may have score cutoffs, though, so my statement may have been a bit misleading.

[cyberwulf]

At good quantitative programs, most 'serious' applicants' GRE quant scores are high enough (160+) that trying to discern between applicants on that basis is pointless.

The GRE Verbal is more of a proxy for general intelligence, so a high (say 165+) GRE V could grab a reviewer's attention in an otherwise unspectacular application. Lower scores, provided they're not disastrous, are less of a concern if the rest of your application is strong.

As R Deckard correctly points out, these metrics tend to be highly correlated (moreso among domestic students), so the reason good schools don't take many students with low GRE scores is not because GRE scores are vital, but rather because those low scores tend to accompany otherwise mediocre applications.

[Eigen]

It's also not really like, say, English admissions in which the quantitative score isn't that important.

Even in an applied science field, you'll be having to do a lot of reading and writing, so the score remains important. As has been mentioned, how important varies, but I think Cyberwulf hit the nail on a head where a high score can grab a reviewer's attention, and a (too) low score might make them worry a bit if it's not balanced out in the rest of your application.

[TakeruK]

I also think the the GRE Verbal can make you stand out if you have a high score but in the STEM fields, I don't think a mediocre score is going to hurt you. So my strategy was to study words where I found time but I didn't stress too much about getting a really high score. A low score is bad, but "low" likely means really low -- for example, one top Astro department publicized its minimum cutoff GRE Verbal score to be 500 / 800. I think being in at least the 67th percentile is probably good enough to not worry about, at least in Astro.

I don't think the GRE Verbal is necessarily a proxy for general intelligence, especially if English is not your native language. And I think most people realise that actual ability is not always correlated to test scores. I feel like when the committee has examples of your ability to communicate in your SOP, CV, PHS (sometimes) or other essays, wouldn't they want to judge your ability for themselves instead of relying on ETS' numbers?

[cyberwulf]

I don't think the GRE Verbal is necessarily a proxy for general intelligence, especially if English is not your native language.

Quite right; I should have been clearer in what I wrote above about the GRE Verbal that I was referring to students whose first language is English. I personally find that the GRE Verbal provides very little useful information about an international applicant because, unlike US-based students, internationals almost always study intensively for this part and often achieve scores far above their actual verbal ability. I suspect that in most quantitative departments, the average GRE verbal score of international applicants (mainly Chinese/Korean) is higher than for their domestic counterparts; at least that's typically the case in our department.

Edited November 13, 2012 by cyberwulf