Originally Posted by moomber123
First of all, let me point out that just because they suggest your GRE Quant is a bit lower to enroll you, it does not mean they use GRE Quant as the initial screening criteria. GRE score and GPA are the easiest objective criteria to do a quick assessment, which was clearly what you asked them to do. In our department, when we used to respond to such requests (we no longer), each request did not get more than 10 seconds of consideration for the person in charge. It simply takes the numbers provided, and match it with our impression of what the average profile of admitted students is. And average number means just that, some will have higher, and some will have lower. It is not a hard cut off, at least not in most departments. Obviously, lower score diminishes your chance, but my key contention is that GRE/GMAT score has limited contribution to your odds above a certain level. Departments would not offer admissions to someone who obviously doesn't "fit" just because of a 10 point GRE advantage.
It is my impression that Asian students are very used to the idea of a strict ranking based on numbers, due to their conventional practice. That impression seems to suggest that schools would always favor a 740.1 over a 740. The truth is that in US, standardized test scores are treated not at that level of granularity. Some departments use a 30 point intervals, some even use 50 points. And most importantly, if standardized tests are THAT important, admissions committee can then be replaced by computer program just to do the ranking. That clearly isn't the case. Plus, evidence is abundant that students with lower score are admitted over students with much higher score routinely, for better research fit, for better demonstrated academic maturity, etc.
With that said, I also need to point out that this thread was started to discuss the admissions criteria for business PhD. Finanical economics, whether hosted in business school in the finance department, or in economics departments outside of business schools, is much much more demanding in the math requirement. You are simply comparing orange to apple. I would imagine even in the finance department, above a certain score, it is the research match and other "subjective" criteria that matter the most. But I would also imagine that their "cut-off" score for math is much much higher. My impression from my colleagues is they routinely end up with students with near perfect score. In that sense, then indeed, your Quant score is a bit lower than the average profile. But again, that is finance, not business (in the sense that business usually means management, strategy, OB, OT, marketing, etc). It is in that context of business PhD I offered my suggestions.
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