Low GRE quant score, looking for advice

Post Reply
sasquatch76
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jul 15, 2015 4:18 pm

Low GRE quant score, looking for advice

Post by sasquatch76 » Thu Aug 13, 2015 9:54 pm

Hello,

2nd try at this with a more detailed overview of myself.

I am a hopeful candidate for next year's admissions. I feel like a I have a fairly ok resume,

State school (top 30 for physics, 15 for CM)
GPA:3.7
Physics GPA:3.85 (all A's in upper level physics courses)
Materials Science GPA :3.9+
2 summers research experience in a condensed matter lab, by the time I apply a semester as well, no publications but hopefully possible by the time I apply, we're making good progress currently.

Then I take the general gre twice.

V:155 both times
AW:4 and haven't gotten my 2nd score yet, expecting a 4 again.
Q158,159 (ugh).

I planned on applying to

Stony Brook
CU Boulder
Ohio State
Penn State
Northwestern
Texas A&M
Maryland
UT Austin
Rice
Michigan
Rochester
New Mexico

for AMO/CM experiment

I have searched through the admissions decisions and found it difficult to find people with a similar profile. But the few I could find that were close:

Overall GPA:3.6
Physics GPA:4
Q:159
P:800
hep-ex
got into texas a&m but rejected from rice and texas (uh oh)

Overall GPA:3.82
Physics GPA: 3.66
Q:159
PGRE:780
CM
got into stony brook, nyu, old dominion, ucsb after getting fellowship. this person is female and half puerto-rican, if it makes that much of a difference

Overall : 3.91
P GPA: 3.94
Q:159
P:790
cmt
got into washington, cu boulder, rejected from maryland but has 3 publications

These are close but none of them are identical (which would be beautiful...)

I'm not really looking to apply anywhere that I'd have less than say 30% chance of getting in. Is my Q score going to affect me terribly? I know I haven't taken the PGRE yet, I guess if I had an idea of what kind of PGRE score I'd need to override my low quant score that would be very helpful too.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

adamyos
Posts: 21
Joined: Mon Oct 12, 2015 5:43 am

Re: Low GRE quant score, looking for advice

Post by adamyos » Mon Oct 26, 2015 1:16 am

Hey!
Well, I am not an expert at this, but I think to have a fairly good chance to get in at your choice of universities, you'll probably need above 900 (maybe around 950) in the PGRE. I think it is possible to get that score provided you do the available question papers and analyse your mistakes and shortcomings after each exam to improve in the next one. Note for PGRE are available online easily.

All the Best!

EDIT: I am saying 900 above because the profiles you mentioned that got in, may have a lot of other research experience and stuff to make up for their PGRE score. Also, admission process is unpredictable so, you never know. Hence, to be on the safer side, get as much as you can on the PGRE.



Post Reply