What role does the AW section in GRE play for admission?

Graduate School
1

<p>Hi, I’m in CS. My GRE score is 600+800+3.0, I know my AW is horrible and it has a 10 percentile. I did not prepare for the AW section at all. But I felt I did okay on the AW after I took the test and I really didn’t know what happened. </p>

<p>Is my AW score going to hurt my application much? Do I have to explain that score in my personal statement?</p>

<p>Thanks in advance.</p>

2

<p>A score that low is the only time that AW actually matters in technical fields (i.e. it hurts). Ways to mitigate that:

  1. Be from an American school top-ranked in CS -> GRE gets ignored (see M Harchol-Balter’s talk)
  2. Have publications
  3. Have a letter-writer attest to your writing ability, but don’t mention GRE specifically</p>