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Does Columbia Astro weigh the PGRE less than other schools?

Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2012 1:59 pm
by InquilineKea
Columbia's Astro department has research-based quals, rather than problem-based quals. I can see how PGRE scores are extremely relevant for problem-based quals, but they don't matter as much for research-based ones (especially since a lot of Astro research is more computational than physics-based these days).

Re: Does Columbia Astro weigh the PGRE less than other schools?

Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2012 5:47 am
by Andromeda
All I can offer in that "friend of a friend" sense is I had someone in my undergrad class who discussed admissions with the admissions director at Columbia who said they'd seen a study that the PGRE for astronomers doesn't matter if you score above 20th percentile, so as long as you do they don't consider it further. This was a few years ago mind, so there's a good chance that it's a different director now and who knows what they do.

Re: Does Columbia Astro weigh the PGRE less than other schools?

Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2012 12:34 pm
by InquilineKea
*woah*. I'm so surprised by that. Thanks for the information!

Yeah, Columbia has gotten a bit more competitive since then, but it does appear that there are still students who get rejected by almost all Astro programs except Columbia.