ratlab Posted November 22, 2013 Share Posted November 22, 2013 (edited) Hi everyone, Just wanted an opinion. I am applying to 11 psychology PhD programs (Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience), and they are all pretty competitive schools. I have: - 3.71 Cumm GPA, 3.95 Major GPA (B.S. Psychology). - 2.5 years in one lab, independent honors thesis (departmental honors), multiple posters (one at an international conference), multiple scholar awards and a travel award. - 1.5 years in another lab at a prestigious medical school lab, hired after a summer internship. - Master Level CLRA certified tutor for 3 years, Supplemental Instruction Leader for 2 years, and various other positions. - Great recommendations and a beautifully written SoP - I've had good contact via email with professors, and I met a lot of them at Neuroscience 2013. My GRE scores are: 153 Quant (53rd percentile), 159 Verbal (82nd percentile) and 5.0 AW (93rd percentile). Do I need to explain how this is not representative of me in a few short sentences on my SoP? I was originally going to leave it out until someone (not a POI) made a comment. Thanks for your opinions and feedback! Edited November 22, 2013 by ratlab Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PsychGirl1 Posted November 22, 2013 Share Posted November 22, 2013 I would probably dance around it and not say anything directly, but stress any quant-oriented skills that you have developed (ex. data, stats, etc.). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeingThere Posted November 22, 2013 Share Posted November 22, 2013 (edited) One of my statement prompts asked me to discuss strengths and weaknesses. My quant score is passable but not great (61st percentile) - and this is a school with a reputation for taking high quant scores. So I took a risk and mentioned that it wasn't as outstanding as my verbal score, and immediately followed that with mentioning my high grades in math and stats and my other stats-related experience/accomplishments. My gambit was that I was making the case that this apparent weakness is not necessarily a legitimate weakness. I debated about whether to mention it at all, but I figured this at least gave me a chance to address it in the light of other evidence of my math abilities. I ran it by my advisor and he agreed that it was a good way to handle it. I wanted to address every point on the prompt. Edited November 22, 2013 by Bren2014 Lisa44201 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rising_star Posted November 22, 2013 Share Posted November 22, 2013 I wouldn't address it directly in SOP but maybe address the perceived weakness by focusing on your quantitative, data analysis, and writing skills. But, this is application specific. If there's place for a supplemental statement, then leave any discussion of the GRE out of your SOP and use the extra space instead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ratlab Posted November 25, 2013 Author Share Posted November 25, 2013 Thanks! I really appreciate all the feedback. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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