Low GRE Outweigh Otherwise Great App?

[JKL]

Would a low GRE (perhaps worse than low - maybe one point above a squirrel) of 135-140 on the quantitative portion and 150-155 on the verbal outweigh an application with great LOR, great SOP, an article publication, encyclopedia entry in progress, and an Honors thesis in progress? I'm an undergraduate, but I'm trying to imagine scenarios that would keep me out of a top-ranked PhD program. Would a GRE score in that range do it?

[feelthebern16]

I'm not qualified to answer this, since I'm not on any committee, but I would imagine that if it were to boil down as a toss up between you and another candidate, maybe then the GRE might come into play (to arbitrate strength)...I could be wrong. I like to think GRE isn't as important as we all think, but who knows. 

 

[Quickmick]

Nor am I qualified as an adcom member, but I do wonder if a program has tons of applications to sift through, if they have some minimum GRE number as an initial screen to make first cuts. If that is the case, I would have some concern that I might end up in the "no" pile before they had a chance to look at me holistically.

[JKL]

Thank you guys for the responses. It baffles me that programs simultaneously want applicants with research experience yet are willing to write-off an applicant without looking at what research experience they bring with them. This makes the admissions process contradictory at worst and incoherent at best. "We're looking for experience, but we don't actually look at the experience." What a farce. But I suppose they can do whatever they please.

[TMP]

It's very dependent on the program and the POIs who are taking the first look at your application.  Some programs that receive tons of applications, particularly for an overcrowded field, might cut through with GRE scores.  But there are other programs that have incentives (such as certain number of waivers from the Graduate School or diversity or need more people in a certain field) will actually look through your application.  

I was a victim of low GRE scores and it did take me a while to make it into a PhD program.  There were so many other factors at play according to my POIs.

Just try to breathe and tell yourself that you have done all you can!

[Warelin]

8 hours ago, JKL said:

Thank you guys for the responses. It baffles me that programs simultaneously want applicants with research experience yet are willing to write-off an applicant without looking at what research experience they bring with them. This makes the admissions process contradictory at worst and incoherent at best. "We're looking for experience, but we don't actually look at the experience." What a farce. But I suppose they can do whatever they please.

I agree that it may be unfair but try to think of it from their perspective. Let's suppose you have 1 spot for a very specific field in History that you're looking to fill. And let's say you have 30 people interested in that one spot. All of whom are heavily qualified and more than half of which would be a welcome addition. In an ideal world, one could look at all applications but this isn't the only thing you have to get done. You also have to serve on X committee and Y assignment needs to be assigned and you also have to teach classes a and b while being open to your advisees. Setting a benchmark at a level will get rid of 1/4 of your applicants freeing up time to get your other work done.

[JKL]

22 hours ago, Warelin said:

I agree that it may be unfair but try to think of it from their perspective. Let's suppose you have 1 spot for a very specific field in History that you're looking to fill. And let's say you have 30 people interested in that one spot. All of whom are heavily qualified and more than half of which would be a welcome addition. In an ideal world, one could look at all applications but this isn't the only thing you have to get done. You also have to serve on X committee and Y assignment needs to be assigned and you also have to teach classes a and b while being open to your advisees. Setting a benchmark at a level will get rid of 1/4 of your applicants freeing up time to get your other work done.

You're right. That makes sense. If graduate school is in part training camp for considering other perspectives, applicants can get a head start by considering that of the faculty on the admissions committee. Thanks for your input.

[bigbangdeux]

Also for what it's worth just from my personal experience (and I see that you are applying for fall 2017) but should things not work out this year there can be a lot of benefits to taking time off in between undergrad and applying. I know for myself (I'm in year 2 out of graduating from undergrad) that time definitely helped me to hone in on what I want to study, plus I was able to have a lot more time to study for the GRE. You definitely don't have to spend a lot of money to be prepared for it. I cannot recommend the website vocabulary.com enough when it came to studying some of the pre-made top GRE words lists. I basically just studied those lists and I definitely think it was a huge help for the verbal section. Also sparknotes.com has a great condensed review section on GRE math that is presented in a very understandable way (especially for people like me who are not math oriented). 

[nihonshi]

I got to an ivy league school and I brought that question up to one of my professors and he told me that when he reviews applications he just "glances" at GRE scores. he told me to not worry about the GRE at all (especially the quant score for someone in the humanities), but that they generally look for a writing score above a 4.5/6. I guess it depends on the school/how strict the admissions committee wants to be.

Edited November 19, 2016 by nihonshi