Cut off Quant GRE score for international applicant?

[Mecasickle]

Hi GradCafe members,

I have a really brilliant application (research experience with 3 publications), but kinda messed up in the GRE scoring 162 on the Quant section.

Do you think top schools: Stanford, MIT, Caltech, UCLA, Berkeley , will give a fuss about this? or if its over 160 (over the 85% ) then its just ok and they'll focus analyzing on other parts of my applications: like my statement, publications, and reccomendations?

(I think I'm overanalyzing my test scores)

I'm also an international applicant with 110/120 on his TOEFL iBT. (Over 100 is usually fine)

thanks,

[ssk2]

Stanford states on their FAQ that a strong application would have scores in the 90th percentile -

http://cs.stanford.edu/content/faqs/#c6

That said, I had a friend who applied a few years back with scores similar to yours and made it in. It may have been less competitive then however.

I personally think you should be fine - assuming all other parts of your application are strong.

[smmmu]

I think that's 'high nineties' for PhD applications even.

I think it might in part depend on the rest of your application. E.g. if you are coming from a well-known (internationally / in the US - not just in your home country of course) university with a very good GPA, then GRE won't matter as much. I'm guessing if you did the subject test and scored very well there that would be more important than the general one as well. In any case I wouldn't be too concerned for places outside the top 3 or so, as research experience and letter of recommendation carry much more weight than GRE scores. But for e.g. Stanford it's likely that many applicants will have good research experience etc., so all else being equal GRE might play a (small) role.

Two points to note:

1) MIT doesn't look at GRE scores.

2) If I recall correctly, Stanford says somewhere on their website that they require 113 TOEFL score. (I know, that's ridiculously high.)

[Mecasickle]

Yeah thanks, I think I might be over analyzaing it and MIT doesn't really ask for GRE scores.

In Stanford CS they ask for 113 at their TOEFL, so I'm applying to Neuroscience instead, due to my research paper in computer vision and bioimage analysis applied to neuroinformatics. I'm applying to like 10 schools 5 CS and other 5 neuro/cognitive science.

And for any other readers out there, GRE can be a bit deceiving. I met an international applicant from IIT (India), and she scored perfect scores on her GRE and didn't get accepted at places like MIT, Stanford, and Caltech (my best guess is no research experience / poor statement or average recommendations). She got in UCSB (where I did an internship), but that's a pretty good school too though.

Thanks for the info people, I'll do my best and keep you guys posted!

[tkulk]

Don't worry about GRE scores. I think I got 160 and got accepted into most of the schools you mentioned. I am also an international student

Edited November 21, 2012 by tkulk