Targeting good scores?
Every grad program has defined some range in which they accept the students. Based on
such ranges one must target the score to achieve. For example if a xyz grad school takes
students who score between 300-305 then you must be determined to score 310 or 315 at
least. Students that are not sure of which grad program they want can aim to achieve
highest score. Experts say that math oriented grad programs require high quant scores and
less verbal than the humanities, psychology, arts program which emphasis more on verbal
but less on math programs. Some schools need high score while some need low. So it is
important to know the mean score that one must target.
Doesn’t the GRE score alone do the trick?
To get into top grad school not only GRE scores is needed but all the following is equally
important to have effective application:
- Captivating resume
- Extra curricular
- Standardized test scores/GPA
- Undergraduate coursework
- Professional and hands-on experience
- Letters of recommendation
- Statement of purpose
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How to choose the best school based on my GRE score?
Choose wisely! Here’s how…
With choices always choose THE BEST. Don’t you dare compromise!
Spend enough time on building your profile, scoring good grades in undergrad, your
experience, your skills, your knowledge of the latest in the field you’re applying to are
essentially building your resume and your material to include in your SOP. These weigh just
as much as your GRE scores.
How GRE scores are obtained?
Gre scores are divided into three sections that is verbal, quantitative and analytical writing.
Verbal and quantitative score may range from 130-170 but writing score may range from 0
to 6. But this style of score is tough to understand whether you have scored good or bad
than other test takers. Hence, percentile has introduced. Numerical score can vary from
year to year but percentile remain constant. Basis of this percentile score one can
determine the rank of test taker for further process.
Grad school based on GRE score
For top schools one must score 90th or more percentiles on the verbal and quant while 5-6
on the writing section.
According to ETS, scores are ranked from worst to excellent are:
- Average score would be between 300-310
- Good between 311-320
- Excellent between 321-330
- Exceptional and Magnificent would be more than 331
Average scores for top schools are as follows :
MIT
For MIT, GRE scores are not enough you need to excel in other parts of the application like
work experiences to excel the application, good letter of recommendation and captivating
Statement of purpose.
MIT website mentions test takers must score 80th percentile or greater and 4.5 in writing.
In engineering would be approximately 162 in the verbal section and 167 in the quant. In
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engineering Ph.D. students entering in fall 2017 were 161 on the verbal section, a 4.4 on
writing section and 167 on the quant section.
Harvard
In education 91st percentile in verbal and 71st percentile in quant while analytical is 5.0.
For Master of Education, the verbal average is in the 81st percentile and the quant 61st
percentile while analytical is 4.6.
On the other hand, the engineering field sees a very high average quantitative score of 167
whereas the average verbal score tends to be slightly lower at 160.
The average GRE scores for the graduate school of design (architecture) were 157 for the
verbal, 159 for the quantitative, and 4.0 for the analytical writing sections. (source:
gsd.harvard.edu)
Stanford university
The average GRE percentile score in statistics is 92% for verbal, 97% for the quantitative
section and 82% for Analytical writing. The Data Science field sees a much higher score with
both the verbal and quantitative averages (percentile score) at 97% and analytical writing at
82%.
Refer this :
https://admitkard.com/blog/2018/11/15/gre-score-300-universities-updated-2019/
https://www.mbacrystalball.com/gre/gre-scores-ms-usa-universities
For B-Schools
Many business schools now accept the GRE as well as the GMAT. For B-schools the GRE
scores would be as follows:
For Yale one must score 164 verbal, 162 quant and 4.7 in writing.
For University of Iowa Tippie School 153 V and 153 Q.
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For Stanford average scores would be 165 verbal, 164 quant and 4.8 writing.
For Harvard 164 v 164 q.
For NYU 162 v 161 q.
Refer this :
https://www.mbacrystalball.com/blog/2015/06/19/average-gre-scores-mba-business-school s/ After receiving scores here’s what you should do :
Step 1: Apply to the schools that you have targeted or wish to get into. Most students apply to
min 4 and max 8 universities. More than 8 will be a waste of money and energy. You can
apply to 4-8 at once. If you don’t get the result you expected apply to those schools that not
only focuses on score but also focuses on ‘whole person’ and excel in the application areas.
Step 2 : If you have any doubts regarding school programs or specific condition feel free to
mail them. If you got not so good score in undergrad program explain that as well without
making excuses. Writing a letter must be formal and polite. Specify your strengths to make
it look appealing.
Step 3 : Demonstrate the hands on experiences you had they have great impact in a good
application. Some universities prefer practical work experiences more than anything.
Step 4 : Retake GRE to ace your scores. You can take the GRE five times so voila you are so
close to get what you wished for!
Step 5 : You can also take other exams like GMAT, LSAT, SAT etc on the basis of the specific
program you wished for.
Step 6 : Choosing the universities from 4-8 is a tough choice. Be wise! Read about the fee
structure, academic, variety of degrees, scholarships, courses, expenses, programs,
infrastructure. Compare and choose the best option.
There is no perfect answer to an average scores because each school have their own
averages so check previous years scores of the university you wish to apply.
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