<p>I was wondering what weighs heavier the numerical total of your GRE or your percentile`s. I ask because I have the following stats I am at UCSD and will graduate with about a 3.4-3.6. My GRE percentiles are 98% AW 71% verbal <em>GULP</em> 17% math. I was wondering as a social science ( poli sci) major if I have a good shot at schools like UCI for grad school. I have strong recs and volunteer / internship stuff.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>anyone have any idea of what kind of schools I should look at?</p>
<p>You need to improve that math score a lot. Top grad schools in political science want you to have more then 700 points in math. Even schools besides top 20 will ask you for a 650 or so. Look at the webpages of the schools and you might find more info</p>
<p>Is A.W weighed heavily? I mean a 98%tile in that really would help me I hope.</p>
<p>Do I have a shot at any ok schools with these scores? I would be looking at schools like cal state long beach, claremont graduate school, usd, san diego state and maybe a few reaches.</p>
<p>I think you should definately pick up your math scores. I really cannot tell you about polisci but I seriously doubt they want your scores to be THAT high in math. I mean I doubt you have to score a 650 or 700. These tests are jokes. If you learn the tricks to them you can do well. If you have the time and money to take classes you can do good on them. You should easily bring up your math scores to a respectable level if you take a Princeton Reviwe or Caplan course. Pay attention to the math portion of hte class.</p>
<p>I applied this year to PhD programs in PoliSci. The programs I researched deeply are Duke, Chicago, WashU and well, UCSD. I was accepted only in WashU with a 750 score (80%)in math. As you might know political science research relies heavily in statistics and calculus. It's becoming more similar to economics every day. I guess the schools you are interested in are a little bit less competititve, but I think you should rise your scores a lot. I don't know if you have a shot, you should ask some profs in UCSD (it's one of the top political science departments, after all) or some profs at the schools you want to apply to.<br>
Shyboy is right, it is easy to rise your scores in the GRE. Just learn the tricks. The Princeton Review book was extremely helful for me in that regard. Good luck!</p>
<p>To further what was stated...</p>
<p>Most people who haven't taken political science at the advanced undergrad or graduate level don't know just how much math is involved these days. The best programs, such as Harvard, Stanford, Mich, UCSD, Cal, and UCLA are all heavily based on both quantitative and rational choice analysis. Maybe Cal a bit less than the others, but still. </p>
<p>Having at least a 700 on the AW portion of the GRE is going to affect your ability to get into good programs quite a bit. Unfortunately, with a 3.4-3.6, you might not be a choice candidate, however. I recommend that you do a few things to help improve your chances for top programs:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Work a couple of years and show that you have a strong work ethic that will help overshadow your good but not great grades (My 3.7 GPA along with college and dept. honors at UCLA was enough to maybe get me into one program, but no top 5s)</p></li>
<li><p>Make sure you know at least one full professor, and well-enough that they can write you a GREAT letter of rec. Kissing arse really helps in this game.</p></li>
<li><p>Get that GRE as close to 99th percentile in all sections as possible. You are unfortunately in a Catch-22 situation. If your GRE is low, it will be a red flag that you are not competent enough. If your GRE is high, but your grades are what you say they are, you will be seen as lazy. The latter is of course preferable to the former.</p></li>
<li><p>Reconsider grad school. Why do you want to go? You aren't going to political science grad programs to teach, remember that. Your ability to effectively articulate your reasons for going to grad school are very important to your overall image as an applicant. "I love political science and want to teach it to the poor children in Africa" is not getting you anywhere. "I want to explore the notion of disposable income growth as an inverse indicator of incumbent party success in reforming former-Soviet satellites" is a better answer. You are being taught how to be a political scientist, not a politics teacher.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>UCLAri: That's good advice. But how do you know that the OP isn't simply looking for a master's program, to become a high school teacher? (Considering the schools he lists...)</p>
<p>To be honest, the only reason I assumed tenure-track position was the fact that UCI and most other top 25 programs have largely abandoned their MA programs.</p>
<p>The only school I know that offers an MA in poli sci (outside of Cal States of course) is Columbia. But then again, that MA is only if you can't make it into the PhD, so it's a fallback.</p>
<p>Mmm. Definitely. I wish these schools hadn't abandoned their MA programs though. We need more wise high school teachers and less adjunct experts.</p>
<p>Well, there is a good reason for abandoning MA programs... most people don't want one. You can't become a professor with one, and there's not nearly as much funding for MAs as there are for PhDs.</p>
<p>I think that teachers looking for MAs are still served by smaller schools though. Most of my teachers that wanted to pursue master's work did so at the Cal State level after attending Cal or UCLA or other big schools.</p>
<p>Well, the math score isn't good at all, and probably needs to come up. I would add that your verbal score is not very distinguishing either. I just finished a Masters (on the site looking for PhD answers). My GRE was lopsided I scored in the 70th percentile for math (pretty shabby) but in the 97th percentile for Verbal and my analytical score was in the 95% (took the day before the change!!) Because my verbal was high, and the analytical was also high, and I had decent grades in statistics classes, they chose to ignore the funky math score...</p>
<p>Personally, I'd retake the GRE after doing a review class with Kaplan or someone. They teach all sorts of tricks to getting the Quant questions right without actually doing a lot of math. </p>
<p>Because of the change in the analytical section, I have a feeling that it isn't taken very seriously, unfortunate for me too.</p>
<p>I am going to just use my current scores. I am not looking at top ranked programs right now. My goal is to go to San Diego State so hopefully I can do that.I figure being from UCSD with good recs and a pretty good GPA that I should have a shot at USD or SDSU.I am aiming to get good grades in a M.A program and then retake my GRE to give me a better shot at a top ranked PH.d program.I am not fully commited to a Ph.d right now, taking that path I feel might be the wrong way to go which is why I want to get an M.A first.</p>
<p>I have a bachelor degree in polisci and got a 690 math score. I applied for Harvard (MPP), Princeton (MPA), Columbia (MIA) and LSE (MPA).</p>
<p>I only got into LSE.</p>
<p>LSE isn't anything to scoff at, still.</p>
<p>I have seen many students ask the question about GRE Percentiles and importance of GRE Scores.</p>
<p>It depends on the university. some universities specify minimum GRE requirements for admission, but some school (usually top ranked) specify percentiles.</p>
<p>Some schools dont like to disclose the average and minimum GRE Required for admission. So, they specify GRE Percentiles. But, there are many students who are still trying to understand what is GRE Percentiles [ [GRE</a> Percentiles](<a href=“http://www.happyschoolsblog.com/gre-percentiles/]GRE”>http://www.happyschoolsblog.com/gre-percentiles/) Explained]</p>
<p>I don’t know if anyone addressed this yet, but since when was 98% on the analytical even possible?</p>
<p>I thought a 6.0 coincided with a ~94 percentile.</p>
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