<p>I think it's simple but I don't know... Oldest child taking GREs to go back for an MS (?) in materials science. Has a BS in chemistry. Has worked for a few years. Does he have to submit GRE scores when he takes them, or like the SAT can he choose to leave that blank, see how he does and also really narrow down his (currently nation wide) list of possible programs? While I think about it, do grad schools look at your best scores even if they're from different dates, too?</p>
<p>He doesn’t need to submit scores to the schools the day he takes the test. But keep in mind that if he doesn’t do as well as planned and retakes them, any schools he submits scores to will see ALL scores taken within the past 5 years (after 5 years the scores expire). They will not just see the most recent ones.</p>
<p>Some schools will average all scores if the test is taken multiple times. Others might look at the most recent scores. It is not usually a good sign if someone takes the test more than 2 times, especially if they’re not improving by much each time. I would suggest reading over some GRE threads in the graduate school forum. This topic has been covered in quite some detail there.</p>
<p>I could be wrong but you do need GRE scores to apply to graduate schools in engineering. I’ve been told though that the actual score is not that important. Engineering schools assume that the math score will be high (I hear the math is not hard for engineers) and they could care less about the English score. Could be different for very selective schools. </p>
<p>The only schools my kids could apply to without the GRE were the school that they received their undergraduate degree from. S has a mat sci degree, he loved it and he and the people in his department were very employable. Mat sci departments are usually very small.</p>
<p>I’d like to second above posters that most programs don’t pay much attention to GRE scores. A science major should do well on the math section (SAT math with elementary statistics instead of trig) and his verbal score only needs to show that he’s not illiterate. There’s no distinction made between a 60th and a 90th percentile verbal score for scientists+engineers. (In fact, a dean at Penn expressly prohibited me from studying for the verbal section because he didn’t want me to waste my time.)</p>
<p>That’s for the general GRE. If any of his graduate program request subject test scores, that’s a different story altogether.</p>