Should this theory student retake the GRE????

[brewski]

Hi All,

Basically it's November 13 and apps are due 1 Dec & and 15 Dec and I'm wondering if I should cram and try and quickly retake the GRE in order to get a higher score. Here are my stats:

590Q 600V 6.0 Writing

Undergrad GPA: 3.85

M.A. GPA: 4.0

(Both top Canadian Schools)

Letters of Ref: 1 really strong one from a super well known theorist who's also my supervisor and who's co-written with profs at most of the schools I want to apply to, and 2 really strong letters from younger assistant/associate profs.

Major Field: Theory

Minor Field: IR

Super Strong SOI and Sample, according to sup.

Interests: Int'l Political Theory, Global Justice, identity politics, rights, religion & politics

Lots of Volunteering and Scholarships

3 Research Assistantships, 2 of which for books being published by Cambridge UP

1 Teaching Assistantship

Schools Applying To: UBC, U of Toronto, Harvard, Princeton, Oxford, LSE, Yale, Columbia, maybe NYU.

My dream school would be Princeton, because they fit best with my interests, but obviously my GRE scores suck mightily so I'm not so sure I have a chance. I've been corresponding with a few profs at a bunch of the schools I'm applying to, including one at Princeton who's worked with my M.A. supervisor. He said the following today in an email(obviously to be taken with a grain of salt), in response to an inquiry regarding his research interests and capacity to take on new supervisees:

"I very much hope you will apply to us and I wish you success; it sounds like your interests are perfect from our point of view . . . I would be happy, of course, to work with you....as would any of my colleagues, many of whom are mainly concerned with issues of global justice . . . I have been working in this area myself recently so I would be deeply interested in what you do." He then asked me to say 'Hi' to my supervisor for him..

Do I have a chance? Should I cram and try to get a higher GRE score, or should I just go with what I've got?

I'm Canadian and we don't do these crazy standardized tests. Yikes. Any advice anyone can provide is more than welcome!! Thanks soooooooooooooooo much for your time!!

[JerryLandis]

I hope you don't need to retake it, because I got very similar scores, and generally have a very similar student profile to yours, except that I'm in a completely different field and haven't done a masters. I'm not planning to retake it, unless of course I get rejected from all my PhD programs and have to apply again in a year.

Okay, so our scores are mediocre, decent at best, for top schools. However, do you really think you'd be able to improve your score significantly if you took the test so soon? In any case, they're not terrible scores. As far as I know every one of your individual scores is above average, maybe getting into the 80th or 90th percentile for verbal and writing if I remember correctly. They may not be the stellar scores needed to boost your applications, but I doubt that you would be rejected on the basis of your scores. At least for the programs I am applying to, the individual departments tend to say that the GRE is the least important component of the application.

Instead of spending extra time and money retaking the GRE's, you may consider applying to a couple more schools. Every university you listed will be very difficult to get into, no matter how excellent your application may be. While you definitely have a chance of being accepted into one or more of these places, you of course also have the chance of not being accepted due to the intense competition for spots, especially in the current economic climate. Sure, improving your GRE score would be useful, but I would choose sending out another application or two over taking the test again.

[applying12010]

I actually rushed to create an account after I saw your post.

Please retake the GRE! I have a professor who works on the committee for Princeton about 10 years ago. If I remembered right, I was told that 700 is usually the cutting off point, which basically means that if your score is lower than that, the committee will not even look at your file. Moreover, sometimes American professors are not as familiar with Canadian (international) schools compared to American schools, so they rely more on the GRE when they evaluate students who studied outside the U.S.

You sound extremely qualified. Please, please retake the GRE! You need at least scores that are close to 700 (on both) for the committee to read your file. With no GRE jeopardizing your chances, I am pretty confident (according to what I know about people who went to LSE and Oxford) that you'll get into the British schools. For American schools, you may want to look at Chicago and Northwestern. Both have brilliant programs.

Best of luck! I hope you will get into all the great programs!

Hi All,

Basically it's November 13 and apps are due 1 Dec & and 15 Dec and I'm wondering if I should cram and try and quickly retake the GRE in order to get a higher score. Here are my stats:

590Q 600V 6.0 Writing

Undergrad GPA: 3.85

M.A. GPA: 4.0

(Both top Canadian Schools)

Letters of Ref: 1 really strong one from a super well known theorist who's also my supervisor and who's co-written with profs at most of the schools I want to apply to, and 2 really strong letters from younger assistant/associate profs.

Major Field: Theory

Minor Field: IR

Super Strong SOI and Sample, according to sup.

Interests: Int'l Political Theory, Global Justice, identity politics, rights, religion & politics

Lots of Volunteering and Scholarships

3 Research Assistantships, 2 of which for books being published by Cambridge UP

1 Teaching Assistantship

Schools Applying To: UBC, U of Toronto, Harvard, Princeton, Oxford, LSE, Yale, Columbia, maybe NYU.

My dream school would be Princeton, because they fit best with my interests, but obviously my GRE scores suck mightily so I'm not so sure I have a chance. I've been corresponding with a few profs at a bunch of the schools I'm applying to, including one at Princeton who's worked with my M.A. supervisor. He said the following today in an email(obviously to be taken with a grain of salt), in response to an inquiry regarding his research interests and capacity to take on new supervisees:

"I very much hope you will apply to us and I wish you success; it sounds like your interests are perfect from our point of view . . . I would be happy, of course, to work with you....as would any of my colleagues, many of whom are mainly concerned with issues of global justice . . . I have been working in this area myself recently so I would be deeply interested in what you do." He then asked me to say 'Hi' to my supervisor for him..

Do I have a chance? Should I cram and try to get a higher GRE score, or should I just go with what I've got?

I'm Canadian and we don't do these crazy standardized tests. Yikes. Any advice anyone can provide is more than welcome!! Thanks soooooooooooooooo much for your time!!

[Penelope Higgins]

I am on the admissions committee at one of the schools you listed. To be blunt, those scores are going to hurt your application at all the US schools you list. I would suggest that you retake the GRE if you can.

[natofone]

Yes, retake it. You can take it at the end of November and still get your scores to the schools in time.

[brewski]

Thanks everyone for your opinions; I really appreciate all of them. I think I will retake and see what I can do.

[polisciphd]

You at least need to get your quant score to 700 or above. There are a lot of schools who consider this the best indicator of whether you will be able to cut it as a grad student.

[brewski]

Hi Everyone.

I retook the stupid test and got 600 again in the verbal, but 720 this time in the Quantitative. Thanks so much for your advice to retake it. I'm glad I did it.

[Penelope Higgins]

Congratulations! Good luck with the admissions process.

Hi Everyone.

I retook the stupid test and got 600 again in the verbal, but 720 this time in the Quantitative. Thanks so much for your advice to retake it. I'm glad I did it.