What will happen to me!?

[Schopenhauerfanboy]

I'm applying to a variety of American programs in the lower range of PGR top 50 (and some unranked schools): Syracuse, Boston, Baylor, New Mexico, St. Louis, etc, plus all the top Canadian programs.

My stats are: Undergraduate GPA: 3.92, M.A. GPA: 3.9. 
I have 8 peer-reviewed conference presentations from across Canada, the USA, and Singapore, and two peer-reviewed publications. 
I won a SSHRC CGS M.A. Award (top Canadian federal award), and I can read German.
I'm told that my sample and letters are really strong (coming from full professors at a top-5 Canadian M.A. program).

But I haven't been able to score well on the GRE. I got 5.5. AW (98th percentile), 161 (88th Percentile Verbal), and a terrible 144 (18th Percentile) quantitative score.

Will my quantitative score sink my application? 

What will happen to me!?

[Duns Eith]

Your GRE will probably hurt you somewhere, because your combined V/Q score is < 310. The fact that you're applying broadly tells me you shouldn't worry though. Plus, you've got 160< verbal. Some places care about that.

You're more likely than not to get an offer somewhere. No guarantees, of course.

Do Canadian schools really care about the GRE? I know Toronto requires it, but... how much do they care?

Edited December 14, 2016 by Turretin

[Schopenhauerfanboy]

35 minutes ago, Turretin said:

Your GRE will probably hurt you somewhere, because your combined V/Q score is < 310. The fact that you're applying broadly tells me you shouldn't worry though. Plus, you've got 160< verbal. Some places care about that.

You're more likely than not to get an offer somewhere. No guarantees, of course.

Do Canadian schools really care about the GRE? I know Toronto requires it, but... how much do they care?

Thanks for the response. 
Western Ontario and UBC don't consider GRE at all, and McGill makes reporting your scores optional, although they "strongly encourage" it. 

I'm re-writing the GRE at the end of December, but my results won't be available before the deadlines of five of the american schools to which I applied. 

Here's to hoping. 

[Duns Eith]

Yeah, that sounds familiar. I looked into W Ontario myself (I'm still considering it, but their funding expectations are either unknown or unclearly stated! blah), and I believe that was one of the reasons I considered them, honestly! I am not proud of my GRE scores.

Does it make sense to retake the GRE in this stressful time of the app season? How much better will you fare? Surely you've got some prep software or practice exams?

Edited December 14, 2016 by Turretin

[Schopenhauerfanboy]

28 minutes ago, Turretin said:

Yeah, that sounds familiar. I looked into W Ontario myself (I'm still considering it, but their funding expectations are either unknown or unclearly stated! blah), and I believe that was one of the reasons I considered them, honestly! I am not proud of my GRE scores.

Does it make sense to retake the GRE in this stressful time of the app season? How much better will you fare? Surely you've got some prep software or practice exams?

I've been using the MaGoosh software, and my practice tests are coming out: 165 Verbal, 148 Quant. I'm not sure if that's an "artifact" of the software, or actual improvement from studying longer. In either case, I doubt that scoring a 5.5/165/148 vs., a 5.5/161/144 would be significant enough improvement to win over a committee. At this point, I might just hope that the particular committee members reviewing my application don't lend too much credence to the quant score, and hope that the rest of my application is good enough to win them over. And if the GRE sinks my app, then there's always the three Canadian schools.

I should mention that I'm already in a Canadian PhD program ranked in a couple of areas in PGR, so I would be transferring programs with a 4.0 GPA from the first semester of my PhD studies. Not sure if that counts for anything.
 

[mano]

19 hours ago, Schopenhauerfanboy said:

I'm applying to a variety of American programs in the lower range of PGR top 50 (and some unranked schools): Syracuse, Boston, Baylor, New Mexico, St. Louis, etc, plus all the top Canadian programs.

My stats are: Undergraduate GPA: 3.92, M.A. GPA: 3.9. 
I have 8 peer-reviewed conference presentations from across Canada, the USA, and Singapore, and two peer-reviewed publications. 
I won a SSHRC CGS M.A. Award (top Canadian federal award), and I can read German.
I'm told that my sample and letters are really strong (coming from full professors at a top-5 Canadian M.A. program).

But I haven't been able to score well on the GRE. I got 5.5. AW (98th percentile), 161 (88th Percentile Verbal), and a terrible 144 (18th Percentile) quantitative score.

Will my quantitative score sink my application? 

What will happen to me!?

Who cares about quantitative part? Your other sections are quite high. 

[Schopenhauerfanboy]

3 hours ago, mano said:

Who cares about quantitative part? Your other sections are quite high. 

I hope the committees will share your sentiment, but I'm afraid that at least one of the departments I emailed said "we find that the quantitative score does have some predictive value," but the professor in question has a second PhD in mathematics and may therefore have a "quantitative-bias" for lack of a better term

[be.]

I think your AOI might make a difference. If you want to do, say, Ancient, then your quantitive score may not matter much. By contrast, if you want become a logician, then your quantitive score would plausibly have more of an impact. 

[Schopenhauerfanboy]

1 hour ago, be. said:

I think your AOI might make a difference. If you want to do, say, Ancient, then your quantitive score may not matter much. By contrast, if you want become a logician, then your quantitive score would plausibly have more of an impact. 

My AOI is History of German Philosophy (mostly Kant, Nietzsche, and Schopenhauer).

[Swann]

1 minute ago, Schopenhauerfanboy said:

My AOI is History of German Philosophy (mostly Kant, Nietzsche, and Schopenhauer).

just curious: if you don't mind my asking, what is your WS on? I ask because I have a side-interest in those figures (relating to aesthetics).

[Schopenhauerfanboy]

1 minute ago, Swann said:

just curious: if you don't mind my asking, what is your WS on? I ask because I have a side-interest in those figures (relating to aesthetics).

Schopenhauer's pessimism with excursions into Nietzsche plus some sustained engagement with the contemporary literature on moral perfectionism