GRE retake or not?

[brentwinslow93]

Hello everyone!

 

I am hoping, this fall, to apply to graduate school for political science. I want to apply to schools such as UChicago, Berkeley, and possibly Harvard and Princeton to give it a shot. I would really like to get into a top program, particularly one with a strong political theory department. 

 

I recently took my GREs and scored: Verbal: 164; Quantitative: 159; Writing: 5.5. I also currently have a GPA of 3.99 with a double major in Political Science and Philosophy and a minor in Classics.

 

Should I retake my GREs and try for higher scores, or am I in a good position for the schools I'm apply to?

 

Thank you very much!

[victorydance]

That's a pretty solid score. And the fact that you're applying to theory programs makes your quant score actually fairly good as opposed to average for the calibre of schools you are applying to.

 

I wouldn't really bother to be honest.

[AmericanQuant]

Do you have a reason to think you'd score higher on a retake?  If so, it's worth thinking about.

 

Most of the top programs require all of their students to take methods (statistics) classes, so a higher quant score is helpful.  I'd also guess that your verbal score is low compared to the median admitted theorist.

[makeyouwannajumpjump]

I am really hoping y'all can help me justify not re-re-taking the GRE. I have a 167V (97%) and 157Q (68%) 4.0 (55%).

 

I read in another section of this forum that one school--I believe it was OSU--rules out the vast majority of accepted applicants from funding if they have below a 75% on Q and V. Does anyone have the inside scoop on whether it is possible/likely/probable to be ruled out from funding due to a mediocre score in one/two/three areas? For example my Q score that I have tried to raise 2X and my W score that I inexplicably bombed this time around?

[Penelope Higgins]

I've posted this on here before, but it is only one data point. My department's admissions spreadsheet doesn't even have a column for the writing score from the GRE. Everyone knows it is a ridiculous test, and nobody takes it seriously.