Does my GRE AWA score hurt me badly in my chance to get into a decent program?

[jasonkowk]

Hi all,

I am an international student now as a second year master's student at a top-10 school and I am rushing for my PhD application at this moment. The problem of my GRE AWA score plagues me, Verbal and Quant scores are 162 (89%) and 169 (98%), respectively, whereas a sad 3 in AWA (11%). The AWA score definitely does not represent my writing ability (some unexpected things happened during my writing section the day I took GRE), but it is the score I have to use to apply to graduate school!!!!

I was aiming at top-20 schools with a concentration in comparative political economy in authoritarian countries, but I don't know if this score would eliminate the possibilities that I could get into these programs. Can good SoP and writing sample hedge the influence of the bad score in AWA on my prospect? Especially, if I am going to follow the approach of formal modeling, how much do the formal-modeling-predominant programs like Rochester or NYU care about AWA score?

Thanks!

Edited November 16, 2012 by jasonkowk

[Darth.Vegan]

Usually people say at least a 4 and you're fine, but your scores are awesome otherwise, I wouldn't worry about it. A lot of schools don't even use the AWA.

[kaykaykay]

Read previous posts from Penelope Higgins.

Good luck.

[Maxx]

GRE AWA is such a stupid thing. It really reflects no one's writing ability. I think most of the schools realize that, BUT NOT ALL.

For example, UCSD IRPS PhD is certainly among 'the top 20' you targetting. It has a minimum required AWA of 5.0. Yes, it's not a typo. Five point O. And they are strict about this.

[gilbertrollins]

Why doesn't the AWA signal writing ability?

[Quant_Liz_Lemon]

B/c the rating scale doesn't handle percentiles well. A score of a 3 means that you should be able to handle grad school writing with some help. In my field (quant psych), no one cares about the percentile of the writing section. In fact, as long as your SOP was polished and your writing sample was nice, they didn't care at all.

[Wemayet]

AWA is a riduculous measure of writing ability, because the writing you'll be doing in PhD will involve many, many revisions.  The AWA is a more accurate measure of 1) organizing thoughts, 2) typing quickly and 3) *as in third* one's BS capacity.  Unfortunately for some, practicing organization of thoughts occurs during the revision process.  For those who were always able to bust out a term paper at the last minute without a revision, congrats!  But I myself would be much more impressed with someone's verbal score; and I don't think I'm alone in my assessment of what the AWA measures in this regard.

 

edit: italicized "in PhD"

Edited January 30, 2013 by Wemayet