Just got my GRE today!Help me choose grad school to Apply!! (Structural Engineering)

[Raja Jul Haziq]

Guys,

Ive just taken my GRE today and my score is V:144 Q:159...i have 3.98 CGPA from Uni of South Alabama and an international student.

Im looking for school that will disregard my low verbal score and mediocre quantitative score. Please help me, below are the school that im thinking of applying. Let me know my chance of getting admitted! thanks guys

University of California Davis

University of California Irvine

University of Southern California

Virginia Tech

Purdue

Rutgers

Suny Buffalo

UIUC (Trying my luck)

[Porridge]

Can you retake it?

[Raja Jul Haziq]

might not be able to retake it, most due date is early january...is it too bad? forgt to say, i also have one summer internship in malaysia

[Porridge]

What is the percentile of 144 -- 50%?

[Tolman's Rat]

What is the percentile of 144 -- 50%?

No, 21st percentile. That's pretty far down there...you could certainly hope that Engineering programs don't care much for verbal scores, and that being an international student will also aid you in that regard. I don't know though, you will have to check those schools for absolute minimum requirements. Some have min. requirements of 50th percentile and as long as you're above that, it doesn't matter too much. You need to look into it more and e-mail some advisors at those schools. My own intuition, though, is that a 21% is gonna be pretty harmful.

[Raja Jul Haziq]

yeah i see that. Im emailing universities right now asking what is their cut off points. really hoping my CGPA will help me get admitted into one of those schools. What ive found out:

Davis: no minimum

Rutgers: 1000 old scale (which i pass)

Suny Bufallo : (80% quantitative for funding)

Irvine: No minimum

Southern California : No minimum

Purdue: no minimum

but then i aware that im competing against top student to get admitted..hopefully my gpa,sop, and LOR will help.

[Raja Jul Haziq]

correction:

USC: minimum 650 on quantitative (mine is 750)

[Porridge]

My gut is, if you can retake, then do. I suspect that while GRE is not the be all or end all, institutions will potentially use it to weed out low scores.

[Porridge]

But then again, if you have an amazing SOP, and LOR, you might be just fine...

[bamafan]

But then again, if you have an amazing SOP, and LOR, you might be just fine...

I wouldn't count on it. At 21%, that is very, very low and likely to not make the minimum threshold for review.

[Raja Jul Haziq]

haha i really dont know what to do now...nobody really know how important GRE verbal is in engineering...

[iowaguy]

Raja - if there's any way you can retake the GRE and still make your deadlines, I would recommend that you retake. 21st percentile will likely cause you to miss the cutoffs (even if the school doesn't have a "minimum") at some of the good programs you're applying to.

Supposedly, some programs are lenient on when the "official" GRE results arrive. That is, you could possibly self-report your GRE scores by your application deadlines, even though the official results don't arrive for another couple of weeks.

If I were in your shoes, I would personally retake the exam, and self-report my scores to meet the deadlines. Best of luck, the rest of your background sounds very solid!

Edited December 7, 2012 by iowaguy

[Raja Jul Haziq]

Guys im seriously thinking about retaking my GRE! however, most of the due date for school that im applying to is Jan 15. The earliest i can retake is Jan 10! what do you guys think??

[Porridge]

Is there a computer test that you can take?

[Raja Jul Haziq]

yeah, since i just took it yesterday, i need to wait for another month to retake it.

[TeaGirl]

I think since you're an international student, you may get away with the low verbal score. Your low quantitative score is more worrying, but since your GPA is high it may make up for it, especially if your grades in math and engineering courses are good. I would ask the departments on the deadline for having the official GRE scores sent and schedule a retake of the exam.

If you apply with these scores to these schools, you'll have to make sure that your SOP and your LOR's are exceptional.

[Raja Jul Haziq]

i thought that quantitative score is average in most of the university? would u recommend any university that fit my current profile?

[okProteus]

Consider this:

If your retake is too late to submit to some schools, it may still have value. If, by chance, some schools do weed you out due to the low Verbal score (and I have no idea if they will), you may prefer to take a year out of school and re-apply next year. In that case, you'll want a new GRE score then anyway. So, if it's feasible, why not?

I'm by no means an expert on this; the above is merely my speculation.

Good luck!

[Raja Jul Haziq]

yes, i would probably just have faith on what i have right now and work on my SOP. Will apply to some lower ranking school as well...Anybody know about U of Nevada Reno and Washington State University? Decided to apply to :

UC Irvine

Virginia Tech

U southern California

U of Nevada Reno

Washington State