How important is GRE subject test compared to entire GRE Test?

[molgenmom]

I am the very proud mother of a Biochemistry major. He is a senior in college and getting ready to apply for molecular genetics doctorate programs.

 

He just got the biochemistry GRE subject test back and I am very proud. Overall, for the subject, he scored 94% and got 97% for the molecular genetic portion.

 

He took the general GRE in August and his scores were: Verbal-530, Quantitative-790 and Analytical writing-4.0 but (45%).

 

His GPA is very good in college presently. Since his major for the doctorate program will be molecular genetics, how much consideration will schools give regarding his analytical writing which was his lowest score? Thanks so much.

[DrSteve]

I have a Ph.D. in math. When I took my GRE, my verbal score was very low (there was no writing section then, but my critical reading score was low). This did not seem to matter at all to any of the schools I applied to. It did not keep me from getting into any of the schools I wanted.

 

I would assume that molecular genetics would be similar. There is no guarantee that a particular committee at a certain university won't take the writing score seriously, but if I had to guess I would tend to think that your son's Quantitative and Subject Test scores will be weighted much more heavily. In particular, his subject test score is very impressive and will probably give him many options.

[molgenmom]

Dr. Steve,

 

Thanks so much for your response. I am hoping that they don't weigh his writing very high. He is applying to around 10 schools, so hope at least most will weigh his subject tests, and analytical much higher than the other areas. Thanks so much and sounds like you are doing great.