Do I have a chance?

[littleflower]

Hi,

I want to apply to schools ranked 16 to 18 in biology or allied field(eg. University Of Chicago, University Of California, San Diego etc). My first gre v=570,q=680. I took the GRE again and got v=490 and q=730 What are my chances for those Universities? Should I still apply? I am an international applicant. I do have high TOEFL scores(read29/30,write29/30,listen29/30 and speak 27/30 total=114/120)

Thank you for your help in advance.

[fuzzylogician]

The common wisdom is that graduate schools factor the gre verbal score differently for international students and for native speakers (where it's usually less important for the internationals). That's especially true for fields in which the verbal score is less important for everyone (read: the sciences). You should definitely apply. Your toefl score is great. When looking at the gre scores, some schools take the last score you received, others take the highest score in each section; either a 1300 or a 1220 should be enough to get you past any initial cutoff. After that it comes down to the really important stuff - the sop, your lors, your research experience - to determine acceptance. Have your lor writers address your language skills, if they have knowledge of it, and make sure a native speaker proof reads your essays for grammar/spelling errors. But definitely apply.