Should I submit subject GRE scores?

[buckyball96485]

Hello everyone,

I'm applying to a couple of US universities for grad school (chemistry) from abroad (UK). I took the Chemistry GRE and scored in the 74th percentile, which is ok but not amazing. I'm applying to Cornell, Rice, UT Austin and UNC Chapel Hill – al of which say that the subject GRE is "helpful but not required" (+TAMU but they require it). Given that these are all fairly good universities I am wondering if submitting a 780 subject GRE will improve or harm my application. I have heard that universities place more emphasis on the subject GRE for international students because it enables them to compare them to US students (given that syllabi are different between countries). I understand how this may be helpful from a lesser known university, however, my university [1] is well known and in the top 10 worldwide so if anything me "only" getting a 780 might seem like a bad thing. In other words, looking at my institution people would expect me to perform well so not submitting anything may be better than submitting a "bad" score since they might think less of me or my uni for not doing better.

I'd do it again if I could but I can't. I also only did OK in terms of "GPA" (a high 2:1 in the British system, which is approx. a B+) and GRE (Q=159, V=161, Essay = 5.0) so my application may already be on the verge of being dismissed. I'm mostly trying to safe my a** with research experience (of which I have a lot).

Any thoughts? I know there's no clear answer to these things and similar questions have been posted ad nauseam but I'd appreciate some input in general and specific to these universities (especially Rice which is probably my top choice).


Best wishes!

PS. I'm new here so if I posted this in wrong section or if you think I should post this on another website please tell me!

[1] Sorry, I don't wanna mention my current institution for privacy reasons.