Very Lopsided GRE Score

[katya12]

Hi everyone, 

I'm hoping to apply to some top IR/MPA programs, namely SIPA, HKS, and SFS. I have a pretty good record: 3.75 GPA at a top school, good internships, proficiency in two languages (French and Russian), and a related major field of study. However, I just took the GRE today, and my score is kind of alarming: 167 verbal, and 150 quant. Should I retake it to try to improve the quant? That's a pretty low score, and I know that SIPA and SFS are very strong in Econ. Please let me know what you think, and thanks for the help! Good luck to everyone in this stressful time

[hedong123]

You still have plenty of time!  Why don't you study for a month and take it again!  Magoosh is really good for quant!

[ajak568]

Those scores wouldn't necessary preclude you from being admitted to the schools you mentioned, but I think it could definitely help your case to study and take the test again while you have time. (Especially for funding!) I was surprised that you specifically mentioned SIPA and SFS as the Econ heavy programs. Not that they aren't--my impression was that, of the three, HKS is the more quant-heavy program. Of course, I don't have much experience with either program, so I'm just going off of my own impressions.

In any case, though--try not to stress about it! (I know that sounds dumb.) Just focus on writing the best statements of purpose that you can, and study some quant and take another shot at the GRE. I'm sure you'll be fine and have some good options for grad school.

[katya12]

Thank you for all the responses so far!

[Elvidi]

 I have a similar problem - my quant was horrible, but verbal and written were well within the 90th+ percentile range. I'm obviously retaking - but I've heard that good grades in quant-heavy classes (stats, econ) can help balance this out? I've taken micro and quant. research methods and gotten A's in both, and I'm anticipating an A in Macro this semester. I'm just really bad at standardized math tests, apparently