Graduate school advice

[geographyrocks]

I plan on going into either a Geography or Environmental Science program. 

 

Like most people, I'm questioning whether my application will be strong enough to overcome a decent, but not spectacular, GRE score.  Here are my qualifications:

 

GPA 3.88

GRE: 156 Quantitative

          160 Verbal

           *still waiting for Written score

 

Just completed a summer research program which should lead to being the second name on a published paper.

I will be a teaching assistant for this school year.

Excellent LORs including one from the chair of the Geography department (who was also the state Geographer for 2 years). 

I have 10 years of "real world" job experience including a year and a half at an energy consultation company.

I will also have a senior thesis that can possibly be published.

 

I'm looking into mostly Ph.D. programs because they offer the most financial aid, but I'm throwing in a couple of Master's programs to be on the safe side.  I'm visiting all of the schools that I'm interested in in a week and will be meeting with different people in the departments. 

I also plan on writing an excellent SOP. 

 

Here are the schools I'm interested in:

University of Denver (private)

UC Denver

UC Boulder

Colorado State Fort Collins

University of New Mexico

 

Any thoughts would be great.  I'm really concerned that the 156 Quantitative score isn't high enough to be competitive.

Thanks in advance!

 

[GeoDUDE!]

I think the only school that might worry about your quant score would be UC boulder.  you probably want over 160 for a dept like that, as they tend to be very mathematical in their research

 

That being said, i've seen people get into MIT with worse scores.... your work experience should help you.