<p>All right,</p>
<p>I took the GRE few months ago and my scores are like this: 640 Verbal, 800 Quant, and a stinking 3 Analytical Writing. I have a 3.2 Undergraduate GPA from UC Berkeley on EECS, and planning to apply to MSEE programs in USC, UCLA, UCSD, Carnegie Mellon, Georgia Tech and such. Is that 3 on AW section gonna destroy my chances?</p>
<p>I am in the same situation as you except my verbal is 630. I am going to apply MS as well. I am not sure how this AW writing part will affect the application.</p>
<p>Although a 3 is really low, it’s possible that engineering programs will overlook that. Most programs don’t know what to do with the AW, and they concentrate instead on the more traditional scores. A bigger concern may be your GPA – unless it is an above average GPA for Berkeley EECS.</p>
<p>Yeah 3.2 is a bit low huh. Anyone able to get into decent grad school for MSEE with similar situation? I can’t believe I got a 3 though… I thought id get at least a 4… don’t even know if I should even bother retaking the gre just for the AW. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>I am also in the same boat V-680, Q-800 and AW-3.5. I wish to apply for MS CSE. What are my chances now? Please friends help me.</p>
<p>Nobody knows your “chances” but analytical writing is generally considered the least important GRE score. Your 1480 on the rest is awesome, so you should be fine.</p>
<p>Thanks anyway.</p>
<p>Doubt it will be a dealbreaker. A lot of places think the scoring system is hocus pocus, and I tend to agree with them after taking the GRE for the 2nd time (got a 6.0 the 1st time, 4.0 the second).</p>
<p>I took the GRE general exam yesterday. I got a 740 score on the Verbal and 730 on the Quantitative. I am very happy with these scores, especially the math. I am an older student who has not had algebra or geometry material since high school, which was 30 years ago. (I CLEP-ed math, and didn’t need to take it as an undergrad back in the '80s). I did take Elementary Statistics in my MA program a few years ago, which helped with the stats questions on the GRE. But overall, I was very apprehensive about the math, and I am pleased that I was able to score above 700 in both sections.</p>
<p>I am concerned about my analytical writing score. I frankly feel that this type of subjective assessment tool should not be part of the GRE. I know people who practiced for it, people who are good writers and still ended up with scores of 4. I did not put a lot of time into preparation, because it seems that people who put out much effort are not rewarded, and a decent writer should be able to get a middling score, though not expect more. I figured I would take my chances that my cursory familiarity with ETS expectations would suffice.</p>
<p>I hope that it is highly unlikely that a person could get a 740 on the verbal section (the 98th percentile), and totally bomb the AW. I think my analysis of an argument was fairly strong. But the first one, the issue essay, I am not confident about. It felt so artificial to be B.S.ing, taking a position on an inane, false dichotomy. And I am not heartened to read on the ETS website that computers are indeed used in scoring of the essays. That does not seem very legitimate.</p>
<p>schools use GRE for two things: 1.) to weed out grossly unqualified applicants. 2.) for marketing purposes, e.g. <school you=“” want=“” to=“” go=“” to’s=“” program=“” report=“”> of incoming cohort of 2009 had verbal and quant GRE scores in high 600s, AW in 5.0. </school></p>
<p>your 800 quant clearly demonstrates that you are not intellectually deficient in the quant realm most important to EE. you are on par or slightly above your peers here. your verbal is strong too; i applied to IR programs, and only scored 620 (which according to my ETS report was 89th percentile). so you’re probably in 90th+ percentile. you likely exceed the average verbal score of your desired programs. </p>
<p>the only thing on the GRE side you could worry about is the 3.0-- which you can neutralize with a strong SOP and/or writing sample. moreover, as others have noted, ETS utilizes a computerized grader and a human grader for your AW, which in a lot of discourse i’ve seen on the boards, diminishes its credibility. there have been posters who have admitted to literally (and deliberately) fabricating facts with which to substantiate their AW-- and getting 6.0s. </p>
<p>so if you just make sure your SOP is on point (start early, show it to intelligent people for criticism, and revise), i am extremely confident that you can get into some/all of the programs you’re shooting for. but keep in mind because your AW is quite below par, your SOP <em>must</em> demonstrate everything the AW nominally tests for.</p>
<p>The only time I’ve heard a score of 3 or below really being a problem is if your native language isn’t English. Statements of purpose given directly to the school can be written by other people or heavily edited, but with the GRE it’s only you sitting there.</p>
<p>If you’ve got an “American” sounding name I wouldn’t worry at all.</p>
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<p>I’ve read they’re not actually interested in your position or evidence, but more so your style of writing and usage of the evidence. I know knowing that going in made the section a ton easier for me since I didn’t have to sit there wasting time coming up with actual good pieces of evidence for their turds of prompts.</p>