<p>I am an electrical engineering major at a large top engineering school (think Illinois, Purdue, Michigan). I will be applying for PhD programs in Operations Research / Industrial Engineering and am trying to get a feel for how to interpret my GRE scores. I just took the GRE this morning and got a score of 164Q/155V (790Q/530V). My biggest concern is on my verbal section as it is lower than I performed on any of my practice tests.</p>
<p>The rest of my stats can be summarized as:</p>
<ul>
<li>GPA: 3.63 (but 3.85+ over the past 2 years)</li>
<li>Research: 1 EE REU, 1 semester EE research, 1 year OR/IE research</li>
<li>Letters: Two from professors from research groups above (one is a mentor of sorts). The third from work manager/branch lead.</li>
<li>Work: 5 co-ops with big space/aero company (think NASA, Boeing)</li>
</ul>
<p>I plan to apply to the top PhD programs in Operations Research - Stanford, Northwestern, MIT, Michigan, Cornell, Princeton etc.</p>
<p>What I would like to know is whether my focus in the coming month(s) should be on studying to retake the GRE (mostly to improve my verbal score), or to spend all my time focuses on my personal statement instead. I understand how vital a part of the application that is, as you need to fit with a certain research group in order to be accepted. I would appreciate any advice you can provide - preferably based on your own experience.</p>
<p>I had friends with both similar and lower V scores that got into a number of top 10 schools in our engineering field. Honestly, if you’re an American citizen the verbal section won’t matter for much. They’ll likely assume you’re already fluent in English.</p>
<p>Yeah, you are solid. I can’t think in the new GRE scale, but 790 is good for Q and 530 is still, I believe, above the average for engineering PhD students on V. Most engineering programs really don’t care at all about your verbal score. I believe some programs care at least a little about writing though, since you will be doing a lot of it.</p>
<p>I don’t know about engineering, but I know that in physics those tippy-top level schools like Harvard and MIT are devilishly difficult to get into at the grad level. They seem to want only people who were published as undergrads, went to seminars, etc. Basically, whoever was the top one percent at their school in their field.</p>
<p>Have you considered that you may be just as happy or happier at a lower-ranked school that is easier to get into?</p>
<p>I have an overall GPA of 3.89, my GRE was 164q/168v/5.0w, one Summer research scholarship, tutoring experience, won my class’s bridge engineering design competition, so I consider myself good but not great <em>at least as far as MIT-caliber students are concerned.</em> The highest-ranked school I am applying to is UT Austin (a top-15 in physics and a top-8 in relativity), then U Florida (a top-30 in physics, and has a mathematical physics institute). I <em>may</em> be able to get into an MIT or Stanford but I figured if I got in I’d be under enormous pressure all of the time to show that I belong there, and feel out of place among the borderline-autistic math savants and people who did calculus in the crib. I’d focus so much on not being one of those guys that I wouldn’t enjoy myself and it might make me perform worse than I would at a less world-famous school where I wouldn’t feel the pressure like that.</p>
<p>Please don’t be discouraged by this - but those scores are not impressive. While I doubt they will have a negative impact on your chances, I doubt they will have a positive impact. Most people applying for PhD programs at top universities will have equivalent or better stats. Plan to compete on your other credentials. I wouldn’t bother taking the GRE again. Instead, polish the rest of your application. In theory, the scores from retaking tests like the GRE aren’t supposed to change much, anyway, although some people do manage to get lucky.</p>
<p>Very handy distributions table by major. Looks like your q score puts you above the mean for EEs (but by less then one SD) and in the top quartile (see for yourself if I’m wrong). Looks like ditto for your v score. I think you could get into a good school with these, maybe not MIT or Stanford but don’t feel bad. The more highly ranked the school, the more of a crapshoot it is. Especially MIT where individual research group heads make decisions on admissions, so even if you’re grade A MIT material but you want to specialize in quantum computing but the quantum computing groups don’t have an open slot that year, then you get rejected from <em>all</em> of MIT. Other schools may be the same.</p>
<p>Not to revive a dead post, but we have nearly identical profiles. I’m curious to know if you did end up applying to MIT/Stanford/Cornell or went with second tier schools.</p>