Help - do my quantitative scores matter?

[jfg2121]

I'm applying to history and Middle Eastern/Islamic Studies programs. I have a BA from an Ivy in the field and an MA in the field as well, from a research university in the Middle East - this latter program being the reason why I only just took the GRE. Unsurprisingly, despite as much preparation as I could manage while in classes full time, my high school math skills have not improved and are basically quite poor. I've considered retaking it but honestly can't guarantee the score wouldn't get worse ... so my question is, does it matter? The rest of my application is quite strong, I think/have been led to believe from talking to POIs (languages, GPAs, previous research, intended research). Do history admissions committees consider applicants ability to solve algebra problems at all?

[gatsbysghost]

I suppose that depends on how bad they truly are. I'm in nearly the same boat--I'm applying to English programs, BA from an Ivy, forthcoming Master's from Cambridge. I also did well enough on the Verbal, Analytical, and Subject tests, but my Quantitative was sort of tragic, really. So, there's good news and bad news.

 

Bad news first: There's no way that a low QR score helps you. Whether or not you need to retake the test is a matter of precisely how badly you scored, really. I can help quantify that in the "good news" section.

 

Time for the good news, and there's a lot of it: I read on Duke's English program website that the average Quantitative score of their matriculants is 149 on the new scale (which, happily, is even lower than my score...). I also read on one school's website (Harvard, I think, but don't quote me on that) that GREs are taken much less into account than your writing sample, statement of purpose, and GPA, and all of those are subordinate to your past research experience and the lucidity of your research proposal. I also read that the average QR score for people offered admission to Humanities departments at Princeton is something like 155. I've also heard it whispered that departments don't care much at all about GRE scores, and that they tend to be used either as "tie-breakers" between equally qualified applicants, or as determinants for the amount of financial aid to be offered.

 

In my correspondence with an Ivy-league school's English Dept. Director of Graduate Studies, they implied that it wouldn't really make a difference to the adcomm there if I failed to submit GRE scores altogether.

 

So, really, I wouldn't worry about it too much. It's sort of late now to do much about it, but I would wager that in a field like history, a bad QR score won't impact you much, if at all.