PhD Target School Help/ Split GRE Score

[pearl31]

I am trying to make a list of good education schools in the Midwest/ South.  I'm in Ohio.  I am thinking of applying next year because I have young children.

 

I am a little lost because I have a pretty split GRE score- 165 verbal/ 150 quant.  I don't want to take the GRE again.  I haven't taken math (other than stats) in 15 years.  I practiced a lot in math before the test, and I thought I'd get around 154, but that didn't happen.  Not eager to try again.

 

I am a newer full-time faculty member at a community college (I teach Early Childhood Ed).  I have a 3.9 from my MA and a 3.4 from my BA.

 

I could do a lot of things, but I am interested in Educational Policy/ Community oriented programs. 

 

If anyone has any insight into my split score situation, I would appreciate it.   The only way that I would move at this point and uproot my family is if I could get into a good school with full funding.  Is this even possible with a 150 quantitative score?

[Counterpointer]

It may still be ok because of very strong verbal, but yeah, quant is just too low, in my opinion. It might make them think that you do very well in what you like but you don't do so well in some other areas. Being all-round scholar is important at PhD level: not necessary that you are a strong mathematician but you don't want to make them think that you're picky when it comes to academics. If I were you, I would take it again. With this score, you can't even make into some MAT programs (Duke U comes to mind, I think they require 70 percentile in both V and Q even if you want to teach English or History). Too lazy to look it up, but I think HGSE's average Q score was 155? Although that's for both MEd and PhD, I think you'll be fine if you can get 155.

Some even say that schools all know GRE is stupid. Schools all know that there are methods to study, it can be prepared and good scores simply do not guarantee good performance at grad school. But schools still care, to see who is willing to put effort into it. Also, mind that in the field of education, there have been quite a few number of quantitative/survey-based researches. You may need some basic math to understand them

[pearl31]

Thanks so much for the input.  Can I ask:  What happens if I do test again and my quantitative score is higher, but my verbal is lower?  My numbers fluctuated wildly in practice tests.  I scored from 158-164 in verbal practice tests.  I also scored from 148-156 in math practice tests.  I know I can do better in math, but I feel like I can only do worse in the verbal section.  Isn't the verbal section so much more important in Ed?  I do have an A on my MA transcript from stats.   Do you still think I should retest?

[SheWrote]

I am trying to make a list of good education schools in the Midwest/ South.  I'm in Ohio.  I am thinking of applying next year because I have young children.

 

I am a little lost because I have a pretty split GRE score- 165 verbal/ 150 quant.  I don't want to take the GRE again.  I haven't taken math (other than stats) in 15 years.  I practiced a lot in math before the test, and I thought I'd get around 154, but that didn't happen.  Not eager to try again.

 

I am a newer full-time faculty member at a community college (I teach Early Childhood Ed).  I have a 3.9 from my MA and a 3.4 from my BA.

 

I could do a lot of things, but I am interested in Educational Policy/ Community oriented programs. 

 

If anyone has any insight into my split score situation, I would appreciate it.   The only way that I would move at this point and uproot my family is if I could get into a good school with full funding.  Is this even possible with a 150 quantitative score?

 

 

It is possibly, but you have to decide whether you are willing to take the risk. My GRE score was 164V/151Q (this was my estimated score based on my 660V and 640Q score on the old scale which reflected a higher percentile rank when I earned the score). The only reason that i didn't retake the GRE (I definitely thought about it) was because I was switching PhD programs and had taken multiple stats classes previously. 

 

I got into all but one of the Top 10 education programs I applied to and most of the Top 20 Sociology programs that I applied to. Out of 14 schools, I was accepted to 9 and waitlisted at 1. 

Edited October 21, 2014 by SheWrote

[Counterpointer]

Of course, Verbal is everything. And yeah those are some very fluctuating numbers.. Although, if these practice tests were not official tests from ETS, then they are just made up tests by prep companies and they are not very accurate. Usually GRE scores do not affect the application very much (given that you have reasonable scores for the program). Different from school to school but usually there's an unofficial cut-off line for GRE scores, and they automatically reject anything below that cut-off line. Good way for schools to eliminate some applicants when they have a lot of applications. That's a lot of essay pages they don't have to read. So, V score of 160 and 162 don't make a whole lot of difference, because they are both good scores and they probably are higher than cut-off line for most programs in the country. But your score, 165 in V, may even be considered for bonus points to the application. 95 percentile!!!

 

If you have stats credits, that can be helpful. I'm sure you will get into some good PhD programs. It's very hard to get 165 in V. People with V score of 163 and up that I've met were all super-intellectuals. Just know that some schools may have cut-off line in Q and 150 may not be ok. But I'm sure that most schools won't have cut-off line in Q, because yeah, in Ed, V is everything. Also, if they have a similar applicant as you and he has a higher score in Q, they will probably pick him instead of you. If you're applying to a bunch of schools, be ready to get a few rejection letters but I think you'll get into some good schools. I suggested retaking because it would be such a pity to receive automatic rejections with 165 in V. But I doubt you'll get rejections across the board just because of Q score. Maybe you'll get into all the programs--because after all, V is where it is at, and 165 is probably so attractive to schools. Good luck!

 

 

Thanks so much for the input.  Can I ask:  What happens if I do test again and my quantitative score is higher, but my verbal is lower?  My numbers fluctuated wildly in practice tests.  I scored from 158-164 in verbal practice tests.  I also scored from 148-156 in math practice tests.  I know I can do better in math, but I feel like I can only do worse in the verbal section.  Isn't the verbal section so much more important in Ed?  I do have an A on my MA transcript from stats.   Do you still think I should retest?

Edited October 21, 2014 by Counterpointer

[pearl31]

Thanks so much for your insight both of you!  That really helps.  I have been totally lost about this whole process.