Missed GRE subject test

[EmilyT]

Hi all,

I was scheduled to take the GRE English subject test in September, but had to move it to October due to emergency travel. Then, on the October date, I woke up extremely ill (too ill to get to London to take the test) and missed it. Now, I have no opportunity to make the test up. I emailed one of my top choices (Indiana-Bloomington) and got word that if my application is really strong in other areas, they may still consider me. What do you all think? Is it worth the application fee to take such a huge risk on the application?

[svent]

Depends if you have something to do for the next year instead of grad school.

[haltheincandescent]

Svent is right, in part, but it also depends on a number of other things, as well. For example, only a certain percentage (less than half, maybe even?) of English programs require the test anymore, so it depends on what other programs you're applying to, which of them require the test, and whether or not the ones that don't require it would be as good a fit as the ones that do. As for the ones that do, I'd check in with each specific school, because even though IU might waive it in favor of the rest of your app, others might not be as lenient about it (every department seems to have a slightly different policy on the scores for this test). Further, if you're only applying to one or two that require it--given that they say they'll still accept your app without--then it might be worth the potential loss of application fees (depending, of course, on how much each fee is exactly). If you go this route, I think it might be helpful to briefly (but only briefly) highlight a range of canonical knowledge in your SoP.   It seems that this test is intended to show that you have a breadth of surface knowledge to complement your focus on a particular and narrow field of research, so, programs that want the test are probably looking for at least a sense of this breadth, and it'd likely be to your advantage to find another way to show them you have this. (Or, if you have a very clear sequence of historical distribution requirements satisfied as shown on your transcript, this might cover it as well.)

What it really comes down to then is this: if you had to take a year off, would you be okay with waiting? Is IU (or another school that reqs the score) your very top choice, and do you think you'd ultimately regret accepting an offer from another school that doesn't require it, instead of taking the gap year and waiting to apply to IU?

Then the big one: How strong do you honestly think the rest of your app is?--IU gives very specific data about what they're looking for in terms of GPA and GRE scores; if you're right at the cutoff, this might not be great, but if you're above or well above what they list as averagely acceptable, then that might be the boost your app needs to make up for the missing score. And, how are you in terms of fit? If you think your work really meshes well with one or several of the profs in the department, and you can argue strongly for why this program is absolutely perfect for you, this will help. Really, this is what you need. If your work--both past (writing sample) and proposed (SoP)--is interesting and if it fits well with the department, this is what will help them overlook a missing test score. But if you think your app's weak in any of these other areas, then it might be worth waiting to apply until you can satisfy the score requirement, or going for other schools.