<p>aibarr what kind of research experience did you have? was any of it published? was it original research?</p>
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<p>3.5 GPA (3.9-4.0 in major GPA) at the Cooper Union. I assume my recs were good, but I never asked to look at them.</p>
<p>did any of you take the princeton review or GRE powerprep practice tests? i got a 430 for verbal on the princeton review one, but from taking two GRE powerprep practice tests, i got 540 and 510 on those. which one is the more accurate predictor of my actual verbal score?</p>
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<p>None, no, and no. Not in undergrad, at least.</p>
<p>my GPA was 3.92 overall (4.0 major) at a UC. Yes i believe my GPA helped out A LOT here considering i have only 440 on verbal (800 on Q tho which helped out too at least a little)</p>
<p>i have only OK rec though… one from my boss which i read and was only a veryvery standardized rec, which i think could have hurt me. the second one which i didn’t read was from my other boss, i think that one is at least great. (he better had written me an awesome rec because he laid me off after knowing i am going to grad school) the last one was from my undergrad prof but technically he requested that i wrote the draft for him so that one is pretty good too. so the 3 average out and i would say it’s somewhat solid but not like mind blowing.</p>
<p>but luckily in the end i was able to get into stanford and berkeley and other 2 UC’s. i didn’t apply to out of state cuz i don’t want to move that far.</p>
<p>bear in mind though, your statement of purpose counts too, so does your work/research experience</p>
<p>and FYI the average verbal score for top engineering school is around 550-580</p>
<p>^are you American born? if so, i’m shocked that you got into the schools i’m aiming for with such a low verbal score. in that case, it gives me hope that i get into those schools.</p>
<p>im not surprised…i mean look at his GPA…and i’m sure engineering grad schools could care less about the verbal gre score</p>
<p>no I am not American born but I don’t think that matters because I am not an international applicant. I am a US citizen and a CA resident who did high school and college here. so to them I am just another local student trying to get in.</p>
<p>My point is if you have something great to show them, your less than stellar verbal score won’t really keep you from getting in. I mean, if you got great credentials and took the GRE and got say 500, I won’t sweat it. and there is no point of taking it again and hoping it would go up to 530. instead focusing on writing a great SOP is definitely more helpful. just give it your best shot.</p>
<p>GRE verbal matters AFTER you got in. you need it as good as possible just like other credentials so you can get fellowship from them. from what I know, stanford’s fellowship is merit-based so it doesn’t matter if you are filthy rich or live in a shack, you can get fellowship if you are good.</p>
<p>fellowship is strictly based on GRE scores? or undergrad GPA as well?</p>
<p>Fellowships are based upon most, if not all, of the same factors as your admissions decisions, usually.</p>
<p>just fyi, i got into Stanford, UCLA, and USC. I only had a 3.2 GPA, no research, and 1 very standard/unoriginal LOR (the other 2 were good though). however, i did have a good SOP, and a 770M/710V GRE score. </p>
<p>So in this case, i think my verbal score definitely helped me. i only say this for my situation though — i would agree that verbal GRE score is not as important as long as you have good credentials on the rest of your app</p>
<p>What’s a good target in GRE verbal score / GPA for Stanford?</p>
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<p>I’m not trying to be hostile or combative–I am just curious. Why do you think engineering graduate schools care about how well you did on the verbal GRE?</p>
<p>Well, silence_kit, I believe I remember from my introductory psychology class that not math, not spatial, but verbal skills correlated best with IQ. I don’t know. I can look for some references if you’d like me to fact check.</p>
<p>If this is the case, though, maybe they’re after high IQ? Maybe it’s just impressive… it’s the kind of thing that can make an otherwise usual application stand out. (i.e., everybody has the same stats, but one guy worked for the French Foreign Legion for 5 years and grew up with wolves).</p>
<p>BoelterHall — it depends on if you’re applying for MS or PhD. For MS, i would say u need atleast 3.5+gpa and 550verbal…these are generous minimums though… obviously in my case my GPA sucked but my gre compensated (along with my SOPs). for PhD, u need much better stats im sure, and research experience </p>
<p>btw, i just graduated from UCLA, and based off your name, i assume you’re also a bruin, cool =)</p>
<p>silence_kit - i definitely am not saying that engineering grad schools significantly care about your verbal GRE. what i AM saying, is that a 1450+ GRE school “looks” impressive, and can make an application look better. its quite subjective…</p>
<p>or maybe stanford and USC are biased towards kids who graduated from west coast schools?</p>
<p>‘it depends on if you’re applying for MS or PhD. For MS, i would say u need atleast 3.5+gpa and 550verbal…these are generous minimums though… obviously in my case my GPA sucked but my gre compensated (along with my SOPs). for PhD, u need much better stats im sure, and research experience’</p>
<p>so if i want to go to stanford, have a 3.85gpa but only score 500 on the verbal (havent taken the actual test yet, but my practice scores are in that range), am i panic mode? i apply to grad schools this fall, so i dont have time to improve on the gre verbal.</p>
<p>i think youre fine. my 550 number was an estimate and should be taken with a grain of salt. in hindsight, i would actually say MS applicants with high GPAs should have atleast a 450verbal</p>