Do I need to explain my GRE in SoP?

[ratlab]

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

[PsychGirl1]

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.).

[BeingThere]

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

[rising_star]

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.

[ratlab]

Thanks! I really appreciate all the feedback.