urbanrenewal Posted September 2, 2011 Share Posted September 2, 2011 Hi all, I took the old GRE about week before the revised version came into play. My scores were 800Q/530V/5.5 AW. On the ETS diagnostics I was getting 650V and somehow choked on test day so didn't do as well on verbal as I had hoped. Thankfully my math and writing came out pretty high, so that may redeem me, but to be honest it feels like adcoms will look at anything and everything to differentiate between applicants given how competitive econ/MPA programs have become. I'm thinking of applying this application season to a few econ/ARE programs but am really focusing on MPAID-esque programs. I was hoping to just be done with my standardized testing, but I'm wondering whether it would be worth taking the revised version (keep in mind I've never actually studied at all for the revised version yet.. not really sure what was actually revised :) ) to try and get a higher verbal score but of course realizing the inherent risk of scoring lower in quant or writing. Just a bit of background: went to a top public US univ. for econ undergrad. GPA is 3.85-ish give or take. What do you all think? Is it worth taking the time to start studying again and retaking it? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EconBeach Posted September 2, 2011 Share Posted September 2, 2011 your scores are excellent. No need for a retake, at all. Considering everything else is strong, people with similar scores get into top schools like UChicago and Stanford. No need to worry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JRav Posted September 2, 2011 Share Posted September 2, 2011 Agree. You're done with the GRE. Start fretting about the rest of your application. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EnvEcon Posted September 3, 2011 Share Posted September 3, 2011 NO. (By the way, I noticed that frequently people get a bit obsessed with GRE in this forum. Probably because it is, along with GPA, the only thing "quantifiable". I will never stress enough that letters are much much much more important asset in an application than the GRE score.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
urbanrenewal Posted September 3, 2011 Author Share Posted September 3, 2011 yeah, I was leaning toward it being fine but heard from a few people (one of which being my thesis advisor) that my verbal was a bit low.. How about for MPA programs where more weight may be put on qualitative skills rather than the "pure" quant that econ PhD programs expect? I know the GRE isn't that important in the big picture, but it was still something that was lingering on my mind. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tm_member Posted September 3, 2011 Share Posted September 3, 2011 The 5.5 AWA and strong US undergrad blow any concerns about a 530V out of the water. Not that 530 is a bad score, it's perfectly fine for econ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blockRed Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 The 5.5 AWA and strong US undergrad blow any concerns about a 530V out of the water. Not that 530 is a bad score, it's perfectly fine for econ. Exactly what i was going to say! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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