Low GRE, Still Possible for Ivy League?

Graduate School
1

<p>Any positive or negative opinions on this?</p>

<p>I have interned at UPenn's Museum and the Senior Archivist told me that he described me as their best intern (mind you he's been there for 20 years) in the letter of recommendation he wrote me for my Penn app (PhD Romance Languages), but I'm still worried that my low GRE scores might make them reconsider my otherwise decent application package.</p>

<p>The rest of my stats are: </p>

<p>Spent 4 months studying at the University of Sevilla, Spain, high scores
GPA from medium-sized private college: 3.83 overall, 4.0 majors (History and Spanish Double Major, French Minor)
3 publications in scholarly journal
2 award-winning conference papers</p>

<p>work experience: bilingual babysitter for french family since september, language lab tutor at my school in Spanish, French, and Arabic, Archives Intern at UPenn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology</p>

<p>Phi Sigma Pi National Honors Fraternity, Phi Alpha Theta National History Honor Society, Alpha Chi National College Honor Society (top 10% of senior class)</p>

<p>great letters of rec and writing samples/sop...but...</p>

<p>I got a 1090 on the GRE (490 verbal [eek], 580 quant[how i got higher in math than the verbal boggles my mind, given my near inability in math], but a 6/6 on the analytical writing which might help me out?). I've applied to other schools that are less strict with the GRE (West Chester [MA], SLU & NYU in Madrid [MA], Delaware is where I really want to go, their minimum is 1070 and though the min doesn't always mean 'accepted', i think that the rest of my qualifications make up for it). So I'm not counting on getting into Penn by any means, but I would like to hear from some other people maybe about what they think about this issue. Honestly, it might even be better for me to go through the MA first and then reapply to Penn later, but I figured I'd give it a shot anyway (just wanted to let everyone know that I'm not dead set on Penn and would be just as happy in an MA at Delaware or in Madrid!)</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>I saw you posted this over at thegradcafe.com, too, so here's my answer:</p>

<p>Nope. As everyone says around here, GRE scores can't get you in but they can keep you out. Procedures at schools vary, but as I understand it, top 10 schools establish certain minimum qualifications beyond which they won't read applications unless someone influential asks them to take a second look. So unless you fall into the latter category, get the Barron's, memorize every vocabulary word in it, retake, and apply again next year--unless there are some late deadlines of which you can take advantage.</p>

3

<p>as far as I know Penn would be my only top 10, and I have contacts at Delaware, as far as I'm concerned, the only schools I'm really worried about not getting into are Penn and NYU</p>

<p>Penn because its Ivy and NYU because they get flooded with apps which will probably have better GRE #s than mine</p>

<p>I guess we'll see when letters/e-mails start rolling in, I'll be sure to come back and let everyone know if I'll have to wait another year!</p>