GRE good enough for Microbio/Immuno Programs??

[DirtyLabCoat]

Hi All!

I am a senior at Cornell University majoring in Human Biology, Health, and Society and plan on going to grad school for a Ph.D in an immunology/microbio program. I just received my GRE scores and I wanted to know if it is worth retaking them.

 

Verbal = 160 =590 old scale = 84% 

Math= 155= 700 old scale= 64%

AWA=4.0 

 

It was my first time taking them. My GPA is currently a 3.4  with a graduate class in Molecular Tox included. I will be graduating with an Honors Thesis as well in microbiology and have a Cornell Hunter Rawlings Research Scholar distinction. I have done microbio research at Cornell all four years as well. I have had internships every summer: Amgen twice for the summers after freshman and sophomore year, and a fellowship at the Spanish National Oncology Research Center in Madrid, Spain this past summer. I have also done research at Brookhaven National Labs and at ICON Central Laboratories during high school. I am active in extracurriculars as well being a microbe TA for multiple semesters. 

 

I also plan on doing a gap year program as either a Biology TA at Weill Cornell's Medical school in Doha, Qatar for a year or be a research associate at a pharma/research lab. 

 

With these considerations in mind, do you think it is worth it to retake my GREs??? Or is there something else I could do. Thank you all!!!!!!!

Edited January 27, 2013 by DirtyLabCoat

[sweetmiracle]

I think you should take it once again. It's better that both V and Q are over 160.

[DirtyLabCoat]

I have heard though that GREs for these types of areas don't really count for much if your research, activities, courses say otherwise

[frankstoneline]

With that kind of research background I wouldnt worry about it terribly, but if you have the time/money it certainly wouldnt hurt you to retake and aim for a quant score closer to 160. GRE is low on the priorities of most universities it seems, but if you want to apply to top programs in the field you'd do well to bring up your GRE scores, as your GPA might be a bit of a red flag (though I was in a similar position this app season in terms of GPA and have been accepted to some schools I thought I had absolutely no shot at). The bottom line is that you have the time, and if your aim is top programs you should take every oppurtunity to make yourself look good on paper.