GRE results good enough?

[fendergre]

Hi all...

Well I took my GRE yesterday, and it was pretty hellish. I decided I might as well use all the time on the AWA so that if I messed up Quants or Verbal at least they'd know I could write an essay.

I ended up with Q610, V690 - I didn't do quite as well on the Quatitative as I had on one of my practices but I'm happy enough with my performance given the fact I only had 3 weeks to prepare and had a 4000 word essay due in today as well. I'd done better on Quants in practice (I got a 680 on the first powerprep on Monday) but that's my highest Verbal. As it turns out the Princeton review practice test was pretty spot on, which predicted me Q610, V650...

Out of interest, do you think those will be good enough to get my application considered by the big unis for a PhD in Political Science? I've applied to Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, UPenn, Columbia and Chicago.

My extracurriculars are very strong as is the rest of my app and references, I'm just worried the GRE Quants isn't quite good enough...

I'd appreciate to hear what you guys think! Thanks!

[PostModern]

My understanding is that GRE scores are but one of many factors in the admissions process, and it is known that the measurement error is high. By the way, 690 verbal is a very good result. According to their websites, the schools you are applying to don't have strict cutoffs for GRE scores. You might want to include some safety schools too though...

[fendergre]

Thanks PostModern. Hopefully so. Do you think my (relatively) high verbal score would make them think 'huh, maybe this guy is good with words but just a bit pants at maths'?

I know the schools claim not to have cutoffs for GRE but I was worried that was just something they said. As long as my application isn't thrown away out of hand because of my Q score and they read my personal statement and references I'll be happy.

Do you know how much a good personal statement/experience helps with schools like Harvard and Princeton? i.e. I'm looking to focus on the Middle East, have traveled and volunteered out in Palestine, I'm currently learning Arabic and I've done a lot of work for my department (in terms of research and also running the university politics society and represented our department on the university council) etc. I'm hoping all of that will give me a shot...

I would apply to more universities but I really can't afford it and most of the other deadlines have passed. I also can't afford to do a PhD without full funding and I was under the impression that all the non-private universities had better funding opportunities. I also want to go into public service, and the colleges I've applied to are all more practically focused rather than railroading me into academia.

What do you reckon?

[phdseeker]

Verbal needs to be a bit higher