<p>I have a horrible GRE score of V:145 Q:145 and AW:4. I how ever have a high GPA of 3.83 and I also have research experiences with two majors and a minor. I want to say in my personal statement that my GRE doesn't reflect my ability to do well in school. I believe I scored a 21 on my ACT but as you can see I'm doing just fine in college (I go to a top state school by the way). So how do I go about addressing this ? None of my schools have "cutoffs" for the GRE but how true is that in general? Anyway I'm applying to get my MS in geology. </p>
<p>I think that you do not want to address it directly but you want your LOR writers to address it by saying that your GRE scores are not indicative of your academic performance in classes or in research.</p>
<p>That being said, you need to be aware that most Ph.D. programs have written qualifying or comprehensive exams and GRE scores correlate highly with success on those kinds of exams. One can argue that such exams mean nothing with regards to an ability to be a good researcher but they still are a major barrier. It may be that an admissions committee will assess your GRE scores and decide that you are likely to have a hard time with the written examination. In these cases, i tell my undergraduate advisees that they can demonstrate their ability in physics by sitting for our Ph.D. qualifier and showing their ability in that.</p>
<p>That probably doesn’t concern me since I’m applying for a masters. Are masters programs easier to get into then PhD?</p>
<p>Yes, definitely</p>
<p>How much easier ?</p>