Good GRE scores for engineering

Graduate School
1

<p>I'm just wondering what good GRE scores for top engineering schools are. Suppose that I have a 4.0 in Aerospace Engineering at a solid, top-ten ASE public school. What kinds of GRE scores am I going to need for MIT, Caltech, Stanford PhD admissions? I'm interested in Aerospace for any of those schools, or possibly Materials Science and Engineering at MIT. </p>

<p>I'm a bit concerned because top ten percentile in math is an absurdly high score... I guess it makes sense because you can study for math, but still... I took a practice test, got Q750, and that was something like 84th percentile. Not too stellar for an enginerd.</p>

<p>On the other hand, my practice V690 is supposedly top four percent or something. Too bad I don't want a PhD in English or something...</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

2

<p>At top schools like MIT, Caltech, and Stanford, the median Quantitative score is 800, because that only corresponds to about the 91st-92nd percentile. I'd say you want at least a 780Q and a 550V to be competitive.</p>

3

<p>I'd say you're fine as long as you get 770+ quant and don't completely bomb the verbal section. The average GRE quant scores for incoming engineering students at MIT, Stanford and Caltech are 775, 778, and 790, respectively. I get the impression the GRE is mostly a formality and will only affect your application if you get a surprisingly low score. There's no use killing yourself trying to optimize your score. Your recommendations, statement of interest, and GPA carry far, far more weight than the GRE.</p>