<p>Since the admissions are influenced by the department rather than the school, and I once heard a professor say that he would actually be less inclined to choose someone who got a perfect score on the gre probably because it gives the impression of being too one-dimensional or nerdy if you're not very outstanding in everything else as well. While being outstanding in other areas might make up for less than top gre scores, it usually doesn't work the other way around, since everyone says the gre is just a formality where it can hurt but can't help you.</p>
<p>…are you serious?</p>
<p>It won’t hurt you.</p>
<p>sounds ridiculous.</p>
<p>But a perfect GRE score will not help you nearly as much for grad school admissions as a perfect SAT does for undergrad.</p>
<p>“it can hurt but can’t help you” with regards to GRE sounds about right, but it’s a low score that can hurt you, not a high one…</p>
<p>At some programs, a high one can help you - especially a high score on a subject GRE.</p>
<p>Subject GREs are different. Some schools even have a cut-off score for acceptance, a high score on subject tests definitely helps at schools where these tests are required.</p>
<p>high scores can also help secure university-wide fellowships. often schools use those scores to compare students across disciplines when determining who gets the really big bucks.</p>
<p>but i don’t think a high score will ever hurt you.</p>
<p>Absolutely.
Have you heard of over-qualifications?
Being in the 90 percentile will most certainly get your ass out of the worst programs.</p>
<p>shnjb:</p>
<p>Haha, never thought of it this way, but so true…</p>
<p>It’s like getting a Ph.D. pretty much disqualifies you from blue-collar work under normal circumstances because the employer just don’t trust your commitment.</p>
<p>I keep hearing about Grad school rejecting applicants not because they’re under-qualified but because they’re over-qualified. Especially if they see you’ve… let’s say… 1600 GRE + 6.0 Writing, 4.X GPA in undergrad, great rec. and SOP AND you’ve applied to HYPSM together with their “name nth tier grad school”. Do you think they’re going to offer you the spot (together with whatever fellowship and award they can master) knowing quite well you’re probably not going to accept anyway? What a waste of a perfectly good acceptance spot…</p>
<p>I’ve always been suspicious about why the application asks us to list other colleges we’ve applied to. How does that help them judge our qualifications in any way?</p>
<p>Maybe you really do want to go there, and you’ve written an heartfelt piece professing your love for the school. Are they going to believe you? Or are they going to think “Hmpf…another fella treating us as a safety”</p>
<p>
Does it matter, though? If you’re not going to accept, they don’t have to actually worry about spending that money. They can also always go to their waitlist and offer another student a spot if and when you decline.</p>
<p>I don’t think most programs would reject an applicant simply for being “overqualified.” As Mollie said, making an offer doesn’t really cost the program anything (besides, perhaps, the postage associated with mailing an official letter and acceptance package). However, if an “overqualified” applicant submits a lame SoP that clearly shows a lack of sincere interest in their program, that may make the program not accept said applicant.</p>
<p>This is only one example and is hence not reliable evidence, but one of the CC’ers here applied, and was accepted to, UTHSCSA. That same CC’er also applied and was accepted to programs including Stanford Biosciences and Harvard BBS.</p>
<p>Right, and to add to what Aceflyer is saying, students have many reasons for applying to specific programs, and those reasons aren’t always related to the “prestige” of the program. A program can’t assume a student is applying just to mess with them – perhaps the student wants to be in that geographical area, or perhaps there’s a professor in the program with whom the student would especially like to work.</p>
<p>My impression is that yield protection is considerably less prevalent in graduate admissions than in undergrad admissions (not that it’s especially prevalent in either) since applicants don’t pay much attention to yield rates. It sounds like the professor you spoke to just had a not-so-rational peeve.</p>
<p>To OP, my advice is that you should not get a score above 90 percentile.
In fact, just to be safe, you should try to get an average score, as this will guarantee that you won’t have to worry about being overqualified.</p>