I Need Your Opinions
I Need Your Opinions
Hi friends,
I'm an international student.
My background is:
GPA: 3.7
Phys Gre: 820-900
Q: 780 (Mediocre)
V: <350 (Scandal)
A. writing: 3.5-5.0
2 years research experience
A published paper in Phys. Rev.
My questions are:
Do I have a good change to be admitted in an outstanding theoretical physics school (6th-15th in the rankings)
Should I retake the General Gre? What if I do not have time? (I still have to take an English proficiency exam)
Thank you for any effort
I'm an international student.
My background is:
GPA: 3.7
Phys Gre: 820-900
Q: 780 (Mediocre)
V: <350 (Scandal)
A. writing: 3.5-5.0
2 years research experience
A published paper in Phys. Rev.
My questions are:
Do I have a good change to be admitted in an outstanding theoretical physics school (6th-15th in the rankings)
Should I retake the General Gre? What if I do not have time? (I still have to take an English proficiency exam)
Thank you for any effort
You could call up one of the departments at a 6-15th ranked school and ask them if they have a minimum suggested score for the verbal GRE, or what the average verbal GRE scores for the accepted international students were.
The rest of your application looks good, except perhaps your subject GRE, but just because the competition for the international students is so tough.
The rest of your application looks good, except perhaps your subject GRE, but just because the competition for the international students is so tough.
- butsurigakusha
- Posts: 293
- Joined: Sun Oct 07, 2007 8:05 pm
I think 780 might be considered mediocre among students who are seriously considering top 10 physics grad school. All of my friends in the physics department here who I have talked to got 800. But, getting 780 probably just means you made a mistake. I don't think anyone really cares, so it might as well be 800.
I think if you're considering a top 10 school and you score a 780 you haven't hurt your chances in the least. Admissions committees are made of actual flesh-and-blood human beings, not computers that sort through applications looking for perfect scores.
It's more likely that your shitty verbal score will hurt you rather than your nearly perfect quantitative score.
It's more likely that your shitty verbal score will hurt you rather than your nearly perfect quantitative score.
A 780 probably amounts to getting one question wrong... not hard to do if you make a simple mistake reading one of those silly pie charts or forgot that 5, 12, 13 is a pythagorean triple.
No sensilble person should frown on a 780... but if you score much less than that, I think that getting several questions wrong on middle school arithmetic could raise some red flags...
No sensilble person should frown on a 780... but if you score much less than that, I think that getting several questions wrong on middle school arithmetic could raise some red flags...
Actually I just talked to my advisor about my score on the quantitative section (below 700, see my post for explanation).
I was pleasantly suprised to learn that the recommendation was not to take the test over again. The advice I was given was that my score was sufficient and that most schools use GPA to weed out candidates on the first run, then look carefully at your research, publications etc., then consider your physics GRE and then the general.
I was pleasantly suprised to learn that the recommendation was not to take the test over again. The advice I was given was that my score was sufficient and that most schools use GPA to weed out candidates on the first run, then look carefully at your research, publications etc., then consider your physics GRE and then the general.