Should I try to mitigate a poor GRE-Q score with a good grade in a Stats course, stated in my SoP?

[grad_wannabe]

Hi all,

 

Question is pretty much in the title.

 

I took the GRE and did abysmally on the quant. 151. Most of my target programs (communication studies) list an "average incoming student score" of 155. I'm retaking tomorrow, but I don't foresee doing materially better. 

 

However, last spring I took a Statistics and Methods for Economics and Quantitative Fields course for graduate credit, and received a grade of A-. I obviously can handle working with stats and data interpretation. 

 

Should I spend space in my SoP to say something like "my GRE score is not indicative of my aptitude for quantitative analysis, as demonstrated by my performance in a Quantitative Methods course" ? 

 

Or is that a waste of space and a counter intuitive draw of attention to my GRE-Q score ? 

 

For what it's worth, I plan to stick with qualitative research methods during the PhD (and say so in my SoP).

 

Thanks all!

[Gvh]

Being in the same boat as you, I considered doing this - but my advisers suggested I leave it out of the SOP in favor of focusing on the good. The LORs, on the other hand, might be used to counter any holes in the application. In my case, I've talked to two of my LOR writers who agreed that my Q score is not representative of my ability and would be willing to corroborate this in their letters. Could you do something like this? 

[grad_wannabe]

Being in the same boat as you, I considered doing this - but my advisers suggested I leave it out of the SOP in favor of focusing on the good. The LORs, on the other hand, might be used to counter any holes in the application. In my case, I've talked to two of my LOR writers who agreed that my Q score is not representative of my ability and would be willing to corroborate this in their letters. Could you do something like this? 

 

Hi GVH, thanks for the note - this is an interesting idea.

 

Part of me is reticent to tell my letter writers, "Listen, I did poorly on this test, can you swear to them that I'm good with the numbers?" but if it would make a difference, I might go this route. 

 

Thanks!

[Gvh]

Yeah, talking about this sort of thing in an SOP is tricky because unless you have a serious excuse (e.g. testing disability, death in the family around exam time, etc) it can come off as complaining/making excuses which might deter from everything else. Your recommender, on the other hand, is more likely to be persuasive to an adcom.  If your LOR writers are anything like mine they'll agree the GRE is mostly BS and vouch for you

Edited November 17, 2014 by Gvh

[grad_wannabe]

Yeah, talking about this sort of thing in an SOP is tricky because unless you have a serious excuse (e.g. testing disability, death in the family around exam time, etc) it can come off as complaining/making excuses which might deter from everything else. Your recommender, on the other hand, is more likely to be persuasive to an adcom.  If your LOR writers are anything like mine they'll agree the GRE is mostly BS and vouch for you

 

Ah, this is where it gets tricky. The one recommender of mine for whom I've done quantitative work is a quant-oriented guy. He doesn't think the GRE is BS.

 

When I told him my first GRE-Q score, he frowned and said "You need to try and bring that up."

 

I'm loathe to tell him I did so poorly that I'll need him to explain that away in the letter.