170 V / 164 Q PhD/MS EE

[jung108]

Wondering if these scores will work against me applying to top electrical engineering programs (also got 5 overall on writing). I graduated in 2008 with a BS EE and 3.98 GPA and have worked as a signal processing engineer since, so lots of projects + 3 patents. Any thoughts much appreciated. 

Edited October 21, 2014 by jung108

[RSgirl]

I really don't see which part of this could ever work against you. You have a good GRE score (in my opinion...) and a lot of working experience. Possibly even a paper published? That would help too. The only thing you need to do to finish it off is write a killer SoP!

[joynow26]

i don't get it. what's wrong with these scores? that's a perfect verbal right?

[btsulliv]

i don't get it. what's wrong with these scores? that's a perfect verbal right?

 

I think the issue is that jung108 is intent on going into a math-heavy field. From my understanding, it would be much more advantageous to have a perfect quant score than a perfect verbal score for engineering graduate students. In fact, I got those exact scores my first time taking the GRE and I still retook it because I needed to mitigate other, less impressive aspects of my profile.

[Icydubloon]

164Q is a tad low for the top engineering schools. However you have a nice verbal score which is more rare so I'd expect committees to excuse your "low" quant score. For those curious, about 5% of EE students got a 170 on the quant section with 28% scoring above a 165Q. Data is from 2013.

[pinkgirlcollections]

If you are applying for PHD, this is good enough. Your research area and fit to the school will be more important. If you are applying to master program, 164Q will only be an issue if you are extremely unlucky. For examples, all the applicants this year are very strong, etc