GRE score help

[chemiegrad]

Just took the GRE cold and got a 161V, 170Q. I'm wondering if I should take this again for admissions (Harvard) and fellowships (Hertz) to improve the verbal score. Any help would be greatly appreciated as I've been in industry for 6+ years now (with a balance of chemistry and software development) and a bit out of tune with academia.

I did my undergraduate at a top 5 school in Chemistry, 4.0/4.0 GPA, rank #1. Goldwater Scholar back in the day. Should have very solid letters of recommendation from 3 profs and technical industry manager.

Will have ~5 or so relevant chemistry publications, including a first author. 

Since I've spent a significant amount of time outside of school, I know exactly what I want to do and the only graduate program I'd consider at this point is Harvard's Chemistry and Chemical Biology. It's either this or a career in software development. In addition, those graduate fellowships are also very appealing, so any recommendations or links on how GRE affects Hertz, NSF, and NDSEG would also be greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much for your time!

[sk8er determinant]

Have you taken your Chem GRE? It's required for Harvard. 

[chemiegrad]

Hi sk8er thanks for the reply.  I have not taken the GRE Chemistry. Cruising this forum, it seems like the weight on that particular test is not too heavy. Would you say that this is accurate? Either way, I definitely need a heavy refresher both for the test and for school. I'm signed up to take it in April (have to travel to find a spot; I'm in NYC as well by the way!), but it's really more to see how much I remember. I'm expecting to take it again after some review later this year. How about you? Are you applying this year as well? 

[sk8er determinant]

@chemiegrad Chem GRE isn't a huge factor, but it's probably used as a tie-breaker or something. If I may be honest, I don't know how much did my Chem GRE weigh on my application hahaha. Anyway, I know Harvard's Department of Chemistry has the average general and Chem GRE scores, and GPAs for the 2016 incoming students so I suppose that's something to refer to. I've already applied and am leaving the overpriced island in August :-) 

[ochemist94]

Hey, I got lower GRE scores than you (160V, 164Q) and I got accepted to Harvard Chemistry and Chemical Biology program this cycle. I believe GRE scores are way less important than your GPA and your research experience. Good luck! 

 

Just wondering, why are you only interested in Harvard for chemistry PhD? I am currently trying to decide among Harvard and a few other schools, so I would be interested to hear about your opinions. 

Edited February 22, 2017 by ochemist94

[JenniFIRMup]

On 2017/2/21 at 7:25 PM, ochemist94 said:

Hey, I got lower GRE scores than you (160V, 164Q) and I got accepted to Harvard Chemistry and Chemical Biology program this cycle. I believe GRE scores are way less important than your GPA and your research experience. Good luck! 

 

Just wondering, why are you only interested in Harvard for chemistry PhD? I am currently trying to decide among Harvard and a few other schools, so I would be interested to hear about your opinions. 

 

@ochemist94

Hey, in your case, is your research experience be tie-breaker to be admitted by Harvard? is that important to publish some 1-tier papers? Just wondering, would you like to tell me more about your result~~

[Levon3]

On 2/15/2017 at 5:06 PM, chemiegrad said:

 

. In addition, those graduate fellowships are also very appealing, so any recommendations or links on how GRE affects Hertz, NSF, and NDSEG would also be greatly appreciated.

 

NSF GRFP does not ask for GRE scores. I can't speak to the other two.

[ochemist94]

On 3/23/2017 at 10:48 PM, JenniFIRMup said:

@ochemist94

Hey, in your case, is your research experience be tie-breaker to be admitted by Harvard? is that important to publish some 1-tier papers? Just wondering, would you like to tell me more about your result~~

I did not publish 1-tier papers, but I did have 2 publications in low impact papers. One of them, I was the second author with just one grad student and my PI. I presented my research in many conferences and won an award for one of the presentations. 

 

I was admitted to Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Princeton, UCLA, UCI for organic/chem bio chemistry. Feel free to message me if you have more questions! 

[chemiegrad]

Just saw that I received a 900 (97%tile) on the GRE Chemistry on April 8th and 5.5 on AW. I'm feeling very blessed and thankful for my undergraduate institution, and definitely more confident about my scores status now. Good luck to any other applicants and big congrats to those admitted! Hope to be in touch with some of you folks in the near future!

Edited May 5, 2017 by chemiegrad

[someth1ng]

On 5/5/2017 at 7:47 PM, chemiegrad said:

Just saw that I received a 900 (97%tile) on the GRE Chemistry on April 8th and 5.5 on AW. I'm feeling very blessed and thankful for my undergraduate institution, and definitely more confident about my scores status now. Good luck to any other applicants and big congrats to those admitted! Hope to be in touch with some of you folks in the near future!

I got 880 (95%) at the same time. Definitely gives a confidence boost since I'd be an international. It's really weird how the US students do poorly on the chem GRE - when I went on exchange there, their chemistry program seemed tough (UW-Madison vs Sydney).

[chemiegrad]

2 hours ago, someth1ng said:

I got 880 (95%) at the same time. Definitely gives a confidence boost since I'd be an international. It's really weird how the US students do poorly on the chem GRE - when I went on exchange there, their chemistry program seemed tough (UW-Madison vs Sydney).

I'm domestic but I have no idea how some of the other folks in my undergraduate program does.

[someth1ng]

On 5/19/2017 at 1:44 PM, chemiegrad said:

I'm domestic but I have no idea how some of the other folks in my undergraduate program does.

Most that I see get around 70% but obviously, every program will give different results.