The Uber-High GREs: 1580, 1590, 1600

WilliamC
Fri, 29 Sep 2006 08:49:18 +0000

ericmeng - Always keeping in mind that the GRE is nowhere near as important to grad admission as the SAT is to undergrad…

It depends on your field. On the handout they send back with your official scores, there’s a list of very wide academic fields (7 or 8 I think) that gives the average scores in those areas. From what I’ve read, anything below the average in your field would be a red-flag if your other materials (GPA, writing sample, etc) don’t tell a better story.

Let me give you my scores & the University of Minnesota as an example: 710V 700Q, 5.5AW

Now, the 710V is, I think 96% percential overall this year. However, at the UofM, 38% of the applicants to Classics program were in the 700-799 range.

My Quant score 700, is quite low overall (those darn physics majors) but only 13% of my fellow classicists reached that score.

My 5.5 AW - another 38% of Classics applicants at the UofM matched me.

So while I have good scores, for Classics I’m really only “above average”. Depending on where I end up, they’re boderline for University wide fellowship competition. Fortunately, I have a decent but not spectacular GPA (3.68 right now) and a very good research project that will finish up this semester.

So…the answer to your question is (probably): be concerned if you’re at or below the average for your field at the schools to which you are applying.

The numbers for all fields at the UofM are here: