Can GRE outweigh GPA

[piers_plowman]

I'm wondering if relatively good GRE scores can compensate for a (comparatively) low GPA. I have a 3.71 undergrad GPA, and a 3.85 Master's GPA (grandfather died mid-term, was out of town for three weeks, got one B in a pedagogy training course - i.e. not a lit. seminar - all other grades As). These aren't terrible grades, but I'm applying to top programs.

 

However, I have solid GRE scores: 170v, 158q, 5.5aw, and a 780 (99th%) on the Subject Test. Will these cancel each other out?

[screamingacrossthesky]

First off, congrats on the great standardized test scores.  They'll only help you.

To address your question, however, I think it is important to emphasize that applications, from what I can tell, are evaluated as a package.  In other words, I don't think that high GRE scores "cancel out" a low GPA, but I think that they make your application as a whole more appealing to adcomms.  I would also emphasize that my other main take away from going through this process last year and speaking with professors both at my current institution and during visit weekends at other schools is that the most important part of the application by far is neither the GRE nor GPA, but the writing sample and statement of purpose.  Put your time into these documents and not into worrying about those factors of your application that it is too late to change (easier said than done, I know!).

Lastly, it doesn't sound like your GPAs are actually that low, especially your MA GPA and, as you importantly distinguish, not in lit seminars.  I definitely wouldn't change the tier of school that you are applying to (as long as they are a fit otherwise) or not apply based on your GPA.  It also doesn't sound like it is low enough to address with an explanatory note in your SoP (and give up precious space in such a brief document), which would otherwise be my advice.  

[WildeThing]

99 on the subject test? Any advice?

[piers_plowman]

Thanks, @screamingacrossthesky, that's great advice. My other components should convince the committee I'm a worthy applicant. I've written an explanation of the grade that I'll attach to any apps that allow "extra" documents or "any more info," but you're right, I can't waste SoP space for that. 

 

@WildeThing, I heartily second the advice of other posters to practice speed reading, and watch your time. I'm a good test taker, and was prepared, and I still finished with just about 5 minutes left. I also skipped grammar questions: those take time, you consider, you read the sentence aloud to yourself twelve times. Most other questions are know or don't know. Also look for patterns of answers: if this were a Romantic poem, that would also allow the author to be Blake in the last question, and would explain the Coleridge answer in the next question, etc. The questions frequently build off each other, as series, so you infer some of them by looking for patterns of answers.

 

I also just had some inherent advantages: I went to a liberal-arts college, interested in broadly familiarizing me with the canon. Then I went to a three-year Master's program, so I've had more time than most to be exposed to different periods and texts.

[knp]

I can't tell the roots of my incomprehension here—and I could come up with a lot of hypotheses—but, what? The level at which posters here want to attach explanations for doing poorly (and I don't mean to pick on you, this is a pattern beyond this thread) is way higher than makes sense to me. For many reasons, my calibration on this metric could be way off. But I'm an anthropology PhD who did quite well in my admissions cycle, and the only comments I received on my ~3.75 undergraduate GPA after admission—and my 'major GPA' and my 'final two years' GPA' were both lower than that!—were two tangential remarks that my grades were "really good!" So, for a single B among a sea of As, are you sure you need to attach this extra explanation at all? Maybe it's different in English, but I don't think the difference between "a lot of As" and "all As" will actually make any difference to how anyone reads your application.

Some assumptions I applied under were: 1) professors at PhD-granting institutions are viewing applicants as future researchers. 2) To gauge applicants' research projects, SOP and WS become the heart of the application. 3a) Maintaining a 4.0 doesn't actually correlate that well with research ability, so 3b) professors look for academic records that demonstrate that you will do well enough not to have problems getting through coursework, but that 4) its irrelevance to your work as a scholar means that as long as your previous GPA(s) is good enough, you won't see added admissions benefit from slightly higher numbers there. You could contest any of these assumptions, I'm sure, and although I had a second major in English I never looked into graduate school in the field, so maybe it's different here. But if my premises apply, I would not submit an extra statement to any school about the grades you've listed above: your reasons for having the dip are very valid and real, and I'm sure it's frustrating to know that you could have done better at another time. Since one B in a slightly peripheral class is completely respectable, however, even if the only reason you got it was that you didn't get along with the professor, I would worry that attaching any explanation would make it seem like you think the point of graduate school is coursework, rather than research, therefore doing more damage to your chances of admission than you get benefits in return. You really do want to make sure they're envisioning you as a researcher, not a coursework-years student.

[Dr. Old Bill]

Yes, my reaction was quite similar to @knp's. The OP's metrics are stunningly good, and when I first read this thread, I was honestly wondering for a second if it was a vanity post, since those GRE scores are quite literally the best they can be. I know it's not, but there is certainly nothing wrong with a 3.71 undergraduate GPA and a 3.85 MA GPA. Even if the former is slightly below typical, the latter is strong enough to make up for it. I don't think there needs to be an explanation sheet. In fact, an explanation sheet might suggest a lack of confidence (I could be wrong about this).

Ultimately, your astronomical GRE scores will weigh in your favor, your GPA will probably not affect things either way, and your WS and SoP and "fit" with each program will most likely be the more determining factors. You really have to put yourself in the mind of an adcomm though. I know I made a long "roleplay" post about that a couple of years ago, but the gist is that you can imagine polite deliberation over various aspects of your application.

In other words, so long as your writing sample and statement of purpose are sound, and so long as there's a place for you in the program, your GPA isn't going to hurt you, and your GRE scores might help you a bit.