Hi! I am a rising senior who recently took the GRE for admission to my school’s MA Program in History (top 15 public university). I made a 170 V, 157 Q, 4.5 AWA. Those scores are definitely good enough for MA, but I am not sure about PhD, since I will be applying to several top 10 programs in my field. I know that many programs don’t have minimum scores, and many people have told me that PhD programs use the GRE as an ordering mechanism. The applicants with higher GRE scores are more likely to be offered admission since the committee reviews their applications first. My question is, if this use of GRE scores is indeed the case, where would a student like me fall? I made a perfect score on Verbal, but my AWA is less than stellar, although not unusually low. Top 10 programs in my field average a 162-165 in Verbal, and a 5 or 5.5 AWA. So, I am significantly above average in one category, and slightly below in the other. Overall, I have a good profile: Honors Program and Accelerated Master’s at my current university, high GPA (currently 4.0, but I’m projecting I’ll graduate with a 3.95+), and respected recommenders who know me well. I’m just wondering if that sub-par AWA score will put me so low in the order that all the seats are taken before they get to me. I know I have time to retake the test, but I would really like to be done if I can. Thanks in advance for your input!
The GRE is not the sole, or even the most important, factor in Graduate admissions. Some universities may select a short list of candidates using the GRE and GPA if they have too many applicants to look at individually, however, in general, the graduate admission process is a much more holistic affair. Your letters of reference and experience doing research will play an important role. If you apply to a program that has a manageable number of applicants, they will definitely look at everyone’s application and the GRE may not play such an important role.
You should consult with your faculty mentors to identify programs which might suit you best. This is very field dependent and advice from this forum may not be specific enough to your discipline to be valuable.
Good Luck!