Importance of GRE

Professor_X
Tue, 01 May 2007 18:06:21 +0000

In the graduate admissions process, the GREs are most important for students who wish to qualify for university-wide fellowships. These awards are conferred by a committee that considers candidates from EVERY department. This committee seeks a “universal” measure by which to judge candidates, and therefore GRE scores become critical.

At the departmental level (at which admissions is determined and assistantships are awarded) the GREs will be most crucial in qualifying for consideration for assistantships.

Most (but not all) history and philosophy graduate programs (both MA and PhD) will have a difficult time admitting candidates with GREs below the mid-500s. Most candidates will have verbal scores in the high 600s or 700s, and writing scores above 4.5. The math score matters much less, if at all.

Ricebound is absolutely correct in that if GREs are low, then writing samples become even more important.