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Test Scores (GMAT/GRE): 163V (93rd percentile) 159Q (73rd percentile) 4.5AWA (82nd percentile). Scored 5.0 (93rd percentile) on previous proctoring, but lower on other sections Undergrad GPA: 2.87, undergrad business school at Large Private University in Intermountain West, major GPA is also ******, but A's in every OB class I took. In applications that allow for addendums or personal history statements I address this. There is a compelling narrative here, i.e. if you go through my transcript you'd notice, "oh there's a story behind this, I wonder what happened?" Graduate GPA: N/A Research Experience: - 2 years RA 1-on-1 with bschool prof at top public university on West Coast (hoping for publication to emerge from this) - 7 months in behavioral lab at same school to learn social psych methodology - 8 months RA work (mainly data collection/cleaning/coding) for bschool prof at top private university on West Coast - working on publication with potential co-author (also bschool prof) at my undergrad institution (all 3 faculty are LOR writers) Teaching Experience: TA for management course in undergrad, also did some TA type work as part of RA responsibilities for professor I worked for after undergrad Work Experience: a little less than a year for tech company based out of Silicon Valley, left to go back to school (if I ever get in front of MBA's I'll be able to tell them "yeah I worked in tech") Concentration Applying to: micro OB Number of programs planned to apply to: 8 (1 top 5, 1 top 15, 4 25-40, 2 outside top 50). Also applied to 1 OB PhD program in ILR school, 1 MA program in social-org psych, and 2 pre-doctoral programs. Would have applied to more but didn't feel like it was worth the cost of application fees due to the weaknesses of my application. All but 3 of these programs I'd go to w/o hesitation. Dream Schools: Haas, Columbia, LBS, Stern, Anderson, Rotman Other Questions: What made you want to pursue a PhD? No other profession feels as honest. Projected lifestyle doesn't hurt either. Questions or concerns you have about your profile? What I really want to know is if I have a shot at the elite programs, considering my low GPA and low quant score. Was scoring higher on practice exams, but just didn't get it to the 90th percentile on test day. Planning on re-taking in 6 months if I don't get in anywhere. Have been told though that quant score is less important for micro candidates vs. macro candidates. Just not sure how much give there really is. The emphasis on elite programs is two-fold: 1.) Living in a diverse, and culturally rich place is very important to me. Part of the reason why I struggled so mightily in undergrad was because I was a minority at a very racially and ideologically homogenous institution. 2.) It just so happens that the majority of PhD programs and TT positions located in big cities are at elite universities, and don't want to get stuck in a negative feedback loop at the lower tiers, especially if it means I have to live somewhere desolate. How impermeable are the tiers truly, especially regarding the rank of your PhD institution? Also, seeking insight on whether it is worth it to continue applying each year in hopes of matriculating to top program, or am I costing myself too much by waiting? And, what do you make of these alternative MA and predoctoral programs? Are they viable options that would help me on my journey or merely a way for these schools to get more cheap labor or collect tuition (in the case of the MA program)? Looking inward and asking myself a lot of questions. 30 is getting closer and I've heard age bias from these programs is a real thing. My family thinks this is just a pipe dream and I should get a "real job", however I know once I take something outside of academe, the degree of difficulty to keep up with the research and publication cycle will be exponentially higher. Would be so easy to give up now, but I've sacrificed too much and worked too hard for this.

So basically, the department of economics at Cambridge mentions that the Faculty will not normally consider admitting a student whose score registers below 90th percentile in the quantitative section and below the 50th percentile in the analytical writing section of the test. My score currently is 167Q, which, when I took the test was equal to 90th percentile. A month ago, ETS updated their percentile charts and a 167 is now 89th percentile. Also, being an international student my verbal score is low (59th percentile =153). My AWA score is 4.0 (55th percentile). Does the AdComm really use GRE as a filter? Because I have a solid GPA and have written 2 research papers in my undergrad and don't want to get filtered out.

I´m struggling with this Manhattan question: "Jane scored in the 68th percentile on a test, and John scored in the 32nd percentile. A: The proportion of the class that received a score less than John’s score. B: The proportion of the class that scored equal to or greater than Jane’s score." The answer is supposed to be C, but suppose 101 people were graded, and all of them obtained a different score. If we order all scores in ascending order, John is in the position 33 and Jane is in the position 69. Thus, quantity A equals 32/101 and quantity B equals 33/101, which are not equal. I guess I must be making a mistake, although I cannot see it yet. I would appreciate any help on this. Thanks!

I am about to give my GRE by the end of next month. I am having trouble with solving percentile and Data Interpretation questions. Can anyone please suggest right place to practice that sums. Is there anyone who is gonna take GRE in next couple of months if there we can study together.

Hi guys, I was reading "A Guide to Business PHD Aplications", by Abhishek Nagaraj and he heavily recommends this forum (and I heavily recommend thar reading for anyone wanting to aplicate for a PHD). I am recently graduated, currently working in a business school as an assistant; in my first try of GRE I got 163 in Qual (93 percentile) and 165 in Quant (88 percentile). Should I try to improve this results or focus on other things, like research experience before application? Would greatly appreciate any advise. Thanks in advance!

Hello Everyone, I have recently applied to some schools for this year but got rejected. I did, however receive an interview at LSE. Was wondering what I could do to enhance my profile. Test Scores (GRE): V: 160 (85th percentile) Q: 167 (92nd percentile) AWA: 5.0 (93rd percentile) Undegrad GPA: 3.83 (Bachelor of Science in Finance) at an average uni in the middle east Graduate GPA: 68% (Merit) at the LSE (Msc Finance), with a distinction in dissertation Research Experience: just masters' dissertation Teaching Experience: peer tutor, undergrad Work Experience: 1 year in sovereign wealth fund, 2 yrs managing own food distributions company Concentration Applying to: PhDFinance Number of programs planned to apply to: 5 Dream Schools: LSE, LBS Other Questions: What made you want to pursue a PhD? to do research and teach I am thinking of doing a graduate diploma in economics, and may be able to be a research assist a professor from Cambridge (he did his PhD at LBS). Not sure if its enough to get me through the door though. Also not sure how a graduate diploma would look after getting a masters degree, worried it may seem like a step down, maybe? Thank you for taking the time to read my profile :)

I got 170 on the GRE quant section. But the percentile rank ends up being only 98 percent. Should I retake the test? Sorry in advance if I do not understand the workings of the GRE. I just want to make everything crystal clear. I remember reading somewhere that top schools have no qualm about rejecting applications below 99 percentile on the quant section.

Hey guys, I am spanish student. Try to excuse my english, I am still not very fluent. I did the GRE test two weeks ago. In percentile, my scores equal to: Verbal 149 = 42% Quantitative 165 = 93% Analytical writing 3.5 = 29% I am disappointed about my analytical results, and worried because in many progrmas they do not only require quantitative scores. My intention is going to a good school with a good master program in Economics. As examples: Boston University, Cambridge or Barcelona GSE. What is your experience, do you think that my poor results in the analytical section would be an obstacle? Thank you so much in advance!

Hi Guys, I appeared for the new GRE exam on Nov 10,2011. The result was shocking, in fact I was devastated after getting the result. I got a total of 306. Most of the students who took the exam on that day were shocked by the questions and the results. he quantitative questions were very hard (I got approx 8 ques in total on probability:(). I am dejected by the score. I am thinking to retake but it is hard to recover from this shock. I have a question. I saw in this forum that though the score is same the percentile is different. Does this mean that the percentile is calculated based on the number of participants who took the exam on same questions?