How important is the AW score for getting admission in Grad Schools??

Graduate School
1

<p>I'm planning on applying for the PhD program in Economics at Umass-Amherst, Colorado State Univ, Univ of Utah, Univ of California this coming January.</p>

<p>I took the GRE two weeks ago, and my verbal & quantitative scores are at (or slightly above) average for these schools (I've a 158 in Verbal & a 162 in Quant to be precise), but, unfortunately, my analytical writing score is just a 3. I am currently a researcher and do write on a fairly regular basis, and was hence not too worried about the analytical writing section. My slow typing speed must have been a reason for the low score, along with my inability to understand what GRE essays really require.</p>

<p>Given these, my query is: does the score in the analytical writing section matter too much, as in is it important enough to hamper my candidature to a significant extent at these schools? Should I consider retaking the GRE? Or should I pay more attention to my personal statement and have confidence that it will speak louder than my GRE-AW score? Also, is there some other way out to compensate for the low score in AW, say by mentioning my inability to type fast somewhere, or by getting a small piece published somewhere? </p>

2

<p>No, it’s not really that important. Make sure your personal statement is really polished and if you have to submit a writing statement, make sure that is perfect.</p>

<p>Getting something published is also good, although I wouldn’t try to do it just to overcome a low AW score. Don’t mention your inability to type fast, though, as you don’t know whether that’s what caused your score to be low and it comes off as making excuses. Just make sure other evidence of your writing is impeccable.</p>