<p>How important is the GRE in graduate school application? Is it as important as the SAT in college application?</p>
<p>depends on field</p>
<p>what about for History, Government and Philosophy?</p>
<p>I can talk about philosophy a little bit since I am receiving my MA and will be pursuing my PhD in the fall.</p>
<p>I've read quite a bit about the importance of the GRE in getting into graduate schools in philosophy. Most of what I've heard is that GRE's should at least be in the 500's to be safe from being cut immediately. If your GRE scores are in the high 500's you are probably pretty safe to at least have a shot to get into MOST philosophy PhD programs. I had a fellow MA student who had scores in the high 400's/low 500's who was eventually rejected from all 16 PhD programs to which he applied. He did receive a few wait lists, and all of those programs were in the top 50. Of course, the lower your scores the better your writing sample and letters of rec should be. Remember philosophy applicants have the highest verbal scores on average, and the highest quantitative scores of any of the humanities and social sciences. </p>
<p>All of that being said, I have heard that BY FAR the most important part of the application is the writing sample and then the letters of rec. You just need to make sure that your GRE scores are high enough so that they will even look at the rest of the packet.</p>
<p>In the graduate admissions process, the GREs are most important for students who wish to qualify for university-wide fellowships. These awards are conferred by a committee that considers candidates from EVERY department. This committee seeks a "universal" measure by which to judge candidates, and therefore GRE scores become critical.</p>
<p>At the departmental level (at which admissions is determined and assistantships are awarded) the GREs will be most crucial in qualifying for consideration for assistantships. </p>
<p>Most (but not all) history and philosophy graduate programs (both MA and PhD) will have a difficult time admitting candidates with GREs below the mid-500s. Most candidates will have verbal scores in the high 600s or 700s, and writing scores above 4.5. The math score matters much less, if at all.</p>
<p>Ricebound is absolutely correct in that if GREs are low, then writing samples become even more important.</p>
<p>I know writing samples are very important. Can the writing samples be a term paper you wrote for a course? Do you have to do a final year dissertation or thesis and submit this as your writing sample to PhD programs?</p>
<p>I'd say the importance of the GRE is inversely proportional to the rank of the school/program to which you are applying. For top schools/programs it doesn't really matter as long as you are within the range of scores they consider acceptable. For so-so ones a strong score (way above the program average) could really bolster your application.</p>
<p>No matter where you apply, a crappy GRE will not be beneficial. But I doubt many committed grad school applicants do poorly on it because your score mainly depends on the amount of time and effort put into preparation.</p>
<p>In most cases the GRE seems to be a "checkmark" part of the application, just to make sure you are, in fact, intelligent and didn't just suck up to get your GPA or choose a massively grade inflated university so that you could get a killer GPA for grad school admissions. The application decision will be made on other elements of the application. (imo)</p>
<p>when should one start preparing for the GRE? Sophomore year? Should they take the GRE in junior year? also, self-study or prep class?</p>
<p>The test is not difficult or important enough to deserve more than a few weeks of study at most. Just buy a study book, learn some vocab words, and make sure you can do the simple math. Don't worry about it, especially before your junior year.</p>
<p>"But I doubt many committed grad school applicants do poorly on it because your score mainly depends on the amount of time and effort put into preparation."</p>
<p>I disagree. As with every standardized test, it mostly shows how good you are at taking tests. And it shows whether or not you can write (to an extent, though scored very leniently), but it seems like many don't even pay any attention to the writing section. </p>
<p>If you're good at taking tests, just glance over the stuff they have on the GRE site so you can get a feel for the type of questions you'll encounter. If you need more than that, study some vocabulary. By this point, either you can write or you can't so don't worry too hard about that, and the math is mostly logic, things that a 7th grade math teacher would have called "word problems."</p>
<p>johnkingston,</p>
<p>Writing samples are indeed most usually a paper submitted for an upper-level undergraduate course. Oftentimes, they are rewritten to incorporate the professor's comments and suggestions. They are ALWAYS re-proofread before submission as part of a graduate application.</p>
<p>Sometimes, students choose to submit a chapter or an excerpt from a bachelor's thesis. Either choice is perfectly acceptable.</p>
<p>As many have already commented, GRE scores are used to differientiate applicants, but are almost never deal breaking application features that will sink your chances at getting into a program you are otherwise qualified for. Standardized scores are much more important in an area such as law, where your LSAT score has a huge impact on admissions.</p>