<p>I am an Electrical Engineering M.Sc. student in Tel-Aviv University, Israel. I hope to apply for a top U.S. engineering school for PhD studies.</p>
<p>My B.Sc. GPA is about 93 (0-100 scale), which is equivalent to 3.6-3.7 (Magna Cum Laude).
I have only one publication as a first author (two others will hopefully be published soon) and two publications as a co-author (one of these two was written during a summer internship I spend in the Netherlands as an exchange student).</p>
<p>TOEFL iBT score: 106 (%89). GRE-Q: 790. GRE-AWA: 3.5.
The major problem is my GRE-V score: 310 :-(. As a English non-native speaker, I found the word list impossible to study within 2 week period...</p>
<p>How much weight do universities in the U.S. give the GRE-V score for non-native speakers, especially when the TOEFL score is rather good?
Should I spend a couple of months studying the word list and taking the GRE again?</p>
<p>PhD programs often require their students to teach as part of the funding package, and programs are very very very hesitant to admit students who may not be proficient enough in English to function in front of a classroom. Your writing score is on the low side, and your verbal score would definitely raise a red flag.</p>
<p>It is true that US universities do look carefully at these scores for non-native speakers because the ability to communicate clear is usually the #1 thing that comes in American students’ minds when they have foreign TAs. You will be amazed how “narrow-minded” and unforgiving they can be if you cannot be understood and express yourself well. Search up any student newspapers at large universities like UC Berkeley, Michigan, UCLA, MIT, et cetera and you will find an occasional article dissing TAs for their foreign accents and inability to express themselves clearly.</p>
<p>It’s worth a try to re-take it. Know that the verbal section is about knowing how to game it. You do not need to memorize the entire word list but rather learn the Latin roots. It’s quite easy to bring up your AW score for that it’s about control over vocabulary, clear writing, and straight-forward arguments. Get a prep book or something to teach you the basic strategies.</p>
<p>I have spent a lot of time in Israel with Israelis and conversed with them in English and Hebrew to get a sense of how they handle their languages and express themselves. I do believe that you CAN do it as you guys had an amazing privilege of being required to get a certain score in order to get into an university- most countries don’t. The ones who did very well on the SAT told me that they just took advantage of every opportunity to use English and interact with Americans through oral and written conversations. Practice makes perfect. Americans aren’t going to be shy to tell you if they don’t understand something. Read, read, read for language, not necessarily for context. Read our New York Times, Wall Street Journal, the Economists, etc for excellent writing. Get on the Internet and chat with native English speakers. And you’re in middle of crazy tourist season - get out there and approach Americans in a nice way (and I mean NOT too direct!). The ones who were shy about using English with me had the most difficult time with the exam… simply because they couldn’t bring themselves to practice the language.</p>
<p>While it all seems irrelevant to the GRE, your speaking will translate in how you read and write. Just raise to 400-500 and you should be in better position of not getting thrown out of the pile.</p>
<p>I don’t even see how some one with 106 TOEFL plus Q:790 can get such a low score!</p>
<p>Your TOEFL is high, what is your score on the speaking section?
I think the speaking is very important, particularly for TAs.
I don’t know if you need bunch of Vocabs to be a TA!</p>
<p>My TOEFL scores are:
Reading: 27; Listening: 29; Speaking: 26; Writing: 24.
The GRE-V was ten times harder for me than the TOEFL, since I found the vocabulary impossible to study within a two week period (I had had only 5 weeks to study for both the TOEFL and the GRE exams before I had for a certain scholarship, 3 of them I spend studying for the GRE). The vocabulary required for getting a good score in the TOEFL exam is actually quite basic; this is the vocabulary I am familiar with from my every-day life (university textbooks and papers, highschool, TV, internet, etc…).</p>
<p>If I am to be honest, I do not mind to make less money (covering the basic living expences and tuition fees will be more than enough) and not to work as a TA in front of a classroom. I mean I would love to be a TA, but this is not the most important thing for me. Do universities offer PhD students other positions, such as being a TA outside the classroom (for example, a colleague of mine who studies in the UK, grades student homework assignments rather than actually teaching)?</p>
<p>It really depends on your financial aid package. Stipends are designed to cover your living needs. But in the sciences/engineering, you may be doing more research work than actual teaching (though you may do at least one semester).</p>
<p>I would JUST study for the GRE- most people spend one to three months studying, even native English speakers.</p>
<p>In the US being a TA is commonly a requirement of your funding package and isn’t negotiable. Usually in the US, the TA will run the lab section, hold office hours to tutor students who come in for help, and do the paper grading. A new TA won’t usually be teaching the class. This may vary depending on school, but fairly common from what I have heard and my daughter’s experience as undergrad TA and grad school TA.</p>
<p>If you are very lucky, you will get an RA right away and just do research if the department or a professor is able to fund you. Otherwise you hope for RA somewhere in the process, usually after the first year or two. If you are in a specialty that doesn’t get a lot of funding, or at certain schools, you may have to TA each semester the entire time in order to get a stipend.</p>
<p>I’m sure some people study 1 to 3 months for GRE, but I’m not sure most do. My daughter just did a practice tests the week or two before, but she is a good test taker. She said that’s what other students at her school advised, unless you don’t do well on the practice tests.</p>
<p>But back to you. While that sounds really low V GRE, I don’t know how non English speakers applying to math/sci programs usually do. What was the percentile? Was it above median 50% at all? I guess you will have to hope the TOEFL will sway them, but at some universities there are cutoffs where your application goes into the reject pile right away. However, at the top schools, the score may be less important and here is where you publication, research and the known quality of your school and your recommenders will have greater importance. Are you planning to retake?</p>
<p>I work as a tutor here at my University and I never had language problem with my students.
Knowing your subject is what matters the most.
I am not native speaker and I don’t think I can get as high as your TOEFL score. </p>
<p>Plus most of the top universities have lower score requirement than 106.
For example MIT graduate school needs a minimum score of 90 !
So it seems most international students who can manage a minimum score of 90 can do OK on the GRE-V ??
I recommend retaking the GRE, may be some thing went wrong.</p>