<p>My friend is aiming for a MA-PHD in philosophy. He has an A average, but no languages or math. GRE scores are 620 (verbal) 600 (math) and 4 (analytical writing). I think his scores are too low for Princeton, Notre Dame, or Colorado.
Anyone else know?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Jack</p>
<p>For a PhD in PHILOSOPHY?? At the top schools?
GREs are not the most important factor, but to get a PhD in philosophy from the top schools, you need at least around 1400 or better.
In philosophy, both language and logic skills are CRITICAL.</p>
<p>If his writing samples are great, letters of rec are great, and statement of purpose are great, perhaps he will get in- it's tough to say. I would imagine the average GRE scores are much higher, so it's something to remember. Also, where he went/who's writing his recs, and whether they are generally big in the field/know people at the schools to which he applied might affect things.</p>
<p>Some top philosophy programs do not require GRE scores; Cornell and MIT come to mind.</p>
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and statement of purpose are great, perhaps he will get in- it's tough to say.
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</p>
<p>I am bumping this thread because of additional information I came across over the past couple of days:</p>
<p>Many competitive Ph.D programs in philosophy receive a plethora of applications; since faculty readers do not have time to peruse all writing samples and recommendations, they remove applications that do not meet a certain GPA or GRE minimum. They might glance through the application of a low GPA or GRE student, just to ensure that a powerful philosopher did not write his recommendations; however, since that is rarely the case, most low GPA and GRE applications are disposed of. </p>
<p>I know a school where over 200 applications per year are received; the typical instruction to faculty readers is as follows: reduce it to 50, and it does not matter how. The group of applicants shrinks until there are few enough where faculty readers can rank and debate over which ones will be admitted.</p>
<p>my advice is, get chumpy with the professors at different schools, and your own school as well. have them write amazing rec letters. my boyfriend didnt do as well as he hoped on the GRE'S, but got into rutgers, princeton, pitt, MIT, notre dame, and NYU for phD's philosophy. he had a great rec letter.</p>
<p>I agree with nspeds: at the top schools, all of the non-GRE components of all the applicants look so compelling that the GRE is often all that's left to differentiate. So you have glowing letters of rec - you think the others don't? Perhaps a very closely aligned and brilliantly developed statement of purpose might be a great help, but where I applied (a top 10 school, and top 3 in my field) no application with a GRE under 1300 even gets forwarded by the graduate school to the department.</p>
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so you have glowing letters of rec - you think the others don't?
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<p>The reputation of the faculty member who is writing the rec is a significant factor.</p>
<p>The results are in. He was rejected everywhere.</p>
<p>That is unsurprising; Princeton is highly selective and the application was probably rejected on GRE scores alone.</p>