<p>550 is not a bad score ??
In schools llike hopkins & MIT and other unis that emphasize on research</p>
<p>what is the favorable score that would give me a shot there ? "verbal score"</p>
<p>ZX - your GRE verbal score is pretty typical for a science/engineering type. It is exceptional if English is a "second language" for you. However, even a 550V is a bit low for schools like MIT. Their departmental websites seem to indicate a verbal in the mid-600s as average. And don't forget - you may also need the Chemistry subject test and the TOEFL. Many schools do have minimums for the latter.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that the GRE is nowhere near as important to admissions as the LSAT is for law school. As long as you're "in the range" you're OK. </p>
<p>I would suggest you check the web sites of the schools you're interested in and use their search feature for for things like "chemistry GRE". Very few schools publish exact details. You may also want to look for a "admitted student profile" os something like that. </p>
<p>Finally - you MUST talk to your professors (the ones who wrote your letters). They will have a good idea of where you'll fit - which is FAR more important than the ranking of the school. If you get into, say, MIT and don't finish because you can't stand the place, all you've done is waste years of your life.</p>
<p>If you haven't read it already, this woman has some good suggestions:</p>
<p>She's a humanities type, but everything she says applies across the board.</p>
<p>Engineering departments at Georgia Tech basically consider a 500+ to "be in the range". This was told directly to a few of us last year at a summer program. A 550 is extremely good, better than the average at nearly every school. Programs like Stanford and MIT may have slightly higher averages than most state schools but a 550 still "puts you in that range". From what I've been told, verbal scores really don't make you/break you in terms of engineering.</p>
<p>I took my GRE yesterday. I got 720V and 740Q. I am a chemical engineering student at GaTech and planning to apply to top 5 chemical engineering programs. Do you think my Quantative score is good enough? I have heard that the average quantative score at top engineering schools is above 780. Is that true? </p>
<p>This was my first attempt. Do you think I should take it again?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>sboghani - As far as I can tell, you would do best to retake and increase the 740Q. That score is probably, what, top 20 percent? You want to be top 10 percent to be competitive at the really top schools.</p>
<p>Very nice on the verbal, though.</p>
<p>Graduate school is about graduate study, so I assume admissions people care about GRE scores. Don't bother about ECs -- what's important in grad school is that students be able to do research -- leave the ECs to undergraduate admissions :)</p>
<p>Also, regarding Barron's, yeah it's the best book out there, but you'll want to take practice tests under real timed conditions. Most questions on the GRE test are easy, but it's the time constraint and stress that make it difficult. Unfortunately, there are only a handful of websites that offer free GRE practice tests. One good one is <a href="http://www.mygretutor.com%5B/url%5D">http://www.mygretutor.com</a></p>
<p>Does anybody know of any more?</p>
<p>Would anyone still recommend the Barrons prep if I plan to take the New GRE? because I'm a sophomore right now, I'd like to start preparing though....or should I wait for the new edition? Any suggestions/comments?</p>
<p>this is responding to stuff posted in 2005 in this thread, but its still relevant.</p>
<p>can anyone basically explain how university-wide fellowships are awarded? does it differ across different unis? let's say at a big public research university (e.g. berkeley) vs. a smaller private uni (e.g. brown).</p>
<p>it seems fellowships are typically more numbers based. does it consider at all research/letters/experience/SOP? do department rankings/recommendations factor in?</p>
<p>is it fair for me to ask the following question: assuming a major public university (UCB, Michigan, UIUC etc.), what is the likelihood (%wise) the following students would get a fellowship (and how much - are they tiered?)</p>
<ol>
<li> GPA 3.81, GRE 1560</li>
<li> GPA 3.45, GRE 1560</li>
<li> GPA 3.81, GRE 1360</li>
<li> GPA 3.45, GRE 1360</li>
</ol>
<p>or is the awarding of fellowships too "complicated" to be able to do this prediction?</p>
<p>It depends on the university. At places where I've managed to dig out info it goes something like this:</p>
<p>I. The University decides it has funds for a certain number of fellowships
II. The University establishes some basic criteria like undergraduate GRA and GRE.
III. The university tells the department chairs how many nominations each can submit.
IV. Each department looks over its admit pool and provides an ordered list of those who qualify. The total number of nominations may be larger than the total number of fellowships.
V. The wheels grind and names pop out.</p>
<p>The Ohio State 2007 Fellowship Announcement is here:</p>
<p>It explains pretty well how they do it. By their rules, the GPA cut-off is 3.6 and the GRE is 75th percentile. So you'd need about a 560 V and 730 Q based on the guide here:</p>
<p><a href="http://ftp.ets.org/pub/gre/994994.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://ftp.ets.org/pub/gre/994994.pdf</a></p>
<p>In my case I got a 710V and 700Q for (97 + 68) / 2 = 82.5 and with my 3.66 GPA I'm eligible. (I called to make sure they did the percentile calculation that way.)</p>
<p>Other places use the raw GRE score rather than the percentiles.</p>
<p>Some schools fund everyone who is admitted. Here at Penn, Anthropology had to scramble to come up with funding a couple years ago because their admit pool accepted at a much higher rate than had been expected.</p>
<p>Your best bet is to call the graduate financial aid offices you're interested in and ask!</p>
<p>WilliamC</p>
<p>great reply. thanks for the details - u answered basically everything.</p>
<p>so i gather that funding is sent out with offers of admission? (and as such, would lead to the situation u describe at Penn?)</p>
<p>Funding is sent out with offers of admission or just after. Most schools will try very hard to get you funding information before the national April 15 reply date.</p>
<p>what is the "national april 15 reply date"?</p>
<p>(besides the most obvious answer of course)</p>
<p>all schools have the same reply-by date?</p>
<p>Most schools/programs do, yes. There's a national consortium called the</a> Council of Graduate Schools. Most schools will do their best to get you all the information you need before April 15 so you can make an informed decision from among your options.</p>
<p>Obviously there are programs (such as those who have late spring application due dates!) which don't use the April 15 reply date.</p>
<p>So that way, you can finish your tax filing right at the same time you find out how much money you're going to owe for the rest of your life! =P</p>
<p>I just realized I should have been more clear above -- the reply date is for you rather than for the program, as April 15 is the earliest date a program can require you to reply. But obviously schools will try to get information to you by early April if the reply date is April 15.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.MaxMyTest.com%5B/url%5D">http://www.MaxMyTest.com</a> is another good site for practice tests.</p>
<p>My advise for GRE prep is buy a Nintendo DS lite with Brain Age. Sounds stupid huh? Well, I took the GRE twice and the only difference between the two was one month and playing Brain Age every day. I scored 250 points higher the second round and I did not study much, do to papers being due, between the two attempts.</p>