<p>Does anyone know the average math-subject test GRE scores for:</p>
<p>Harvard, Stanford, Caltech, MIT, Columbia, Brown?
What should I be aiming (ie dreaming, hoping) for?</p>
<p>I just want a range estimate, please :) Like, do I need 99 percentile, 90 percentile or 80?</p>
<p>honestly, if you're a math major, 800 (99th percentile) on the GRE should be no problem at all.</p>
<p>The test is scaled to 890...800 would be ~90th percentile- almost all people who take the test are math majors, and apparently 90% of them <em>do</em> have problems scoring at the 90th percentile...
In any case, from what I've been told as long as your score is above the 80th percentile it doesn't matter
Anecdotally, I got 93% and got into UChicago, Stanford, Berkeley, NYU and Columbia-but not MIT. I also know several grad students at Caltech with scores
below 70%...</p>
<p>My fault, I misread the math-subject part, thought it was general math GRE</p>
<p>Keep in mind that other factors are going to play a much bigger role in your admission than GRE scores.</p>
<p>That being said, out of 890, I'd guess MIT/Harvard range is 850+, other ones probably closer to 800+. People do get in with lower scores than that, but it's not the kind of thing you'd want to count on happening to you unless you know other parts of your application are really going to stick out.</p>
<p>I go to Brown and had a 730 (77th percentile).</p>
<p>I have a friend who's an undergrad and scored in the 99th percentile (as well has having top grades in graduate courses and some pretty awesome research experiences). He got into Stanford, Caltech and Columbia (as well as Berkeley, UChicago, and some other fine schools) and was rejected from Harvard and MIT (and waitlisted at Princeton).</p>
<p>It's funny how a near-perfect score isn't sufficient to get into some of the top 5 schools yet isn't necessary to get into other top 20 schools. It tells you something about how relatively unimportant these scores actually are, compared to research experiences, letters of recommendation, and actual fit within the department.</p>
<p>It's funny how a near-perfect score isn't sufficient to get into some of the top 5 schools yet isn't necessary to get into other top 20 schools. It tells you something about how relatively unimportant these scores actually are, compared to research experiences, letters of recommendation, and actual fit within the department.</p>
<p>I wouldn't label GRE scores as being "relatively unimportant." If you don’t have the scores, you don’t receive admission. The thing is, the majority qualified applicants to top 5 schools have “near perfect” scores. They only can admit a select few, and all of those qualified applicants have great scores. The varying levels of qualifications in other areas such as research experience, LORs, etc. are the deciding factor for those applicants.</p>
<p>Student35 - Believe me, they're relatively unimportant. An awesome score isn't going to get you into a great school when you've got poor grades, no research experience and bad letters of recommendation. But at the same time, a "relatively low" score won't necessarily get you rejected from a good school if you have awesome credentials. I have friends who went to graduate schools in math that were extremely well-regarded, but who did poorly (re: below 50th percentile) on their GREs because they get anxiety taking high-stakes tests.</p>
<p>Regardless, I was just pointing out that the answer to the original poster's question is amusing. They listed a few very good schools, not all exactly the same caliber but all of which are top 20 programs or so, and the answers are so strikingly different.</p>
<p>I wasn't suggesting that good GRE scores would save an applicant with a poor GPA, no research experience nor LORs. Just that GRE scores are an important facet of the graduate admissions process. If they were unimportant they would not be required.</p>
<p><i>If they were unimportant they would not be required.</i></p>
<p>The GRE General Test is required for math grad school admissions. Case in point.</p>
<p>I was wondering, how much easier is it to gain admission to masters programs?
What is the competition like for those spots?
I am a physics and math major and i want to go into mathematical physics. I was thinking that if i do not get into my physics program of choice i could enter a math masters programm considering i would have to learn a good deal of it anyway (i do enjoy math for its own sake so i wouldn't mind taking some classes that i couldn't later apply to physics).</p>
<p>mathtastic_nerd: As far as I'm aware, most schools do not admit students into just a master's program. Courant (NYU) does this for various reasons, but I'm not really familiar with any other schools that have such a procedure. It's not terribly common (many people who are considering just taking a master's degree will apply for a PhD program and drop out after two years). I would be interested in hearing about programs that do such a thing, though. Anyone?</p>
<p>Quite a few people I know deferred grad school for a year to do Part III of the tripos in math at Cambridge (essentially a master's). Some of them went on to do Ph.D's in physics. All of these people were Marshall/Churchill scholars (otherwise it would be hella expensive), and were accepted to grad school of their choice before graduating from college but deferred.</p>
<p>Thanks so much gimp, happyentropy, dilksy, emengee, Student 35. You're all awesome :)</p>
<p>Do you guys know how I can prepare for the math-subject GRE? Or recommend any good practice books? I've heard that the best preparation is reviewing my math classes, but you guys know what you're talking about :) I'm a junior so I've got the summer to prepare...</p>
<p>Extensive review books for the math subject GRE (with practice tests etc) are published by Barron's and the Princeton Review.
There is also a practice booklet at <a href="http://www.ets.org/Media/Tests/GRE/pdf/Math.pdf%5B/url%5D">www.ets.org/Media/Tests/GRE/pdf/Math.pdf</a>
Depending on where you go to school/what you did before college it is possible that you would be better off reviewing material from your high school rather than college classes...</p>
<p>"it is possible that you would be better off reviewing material from your high school rather than college classes..."</p>
<p>Definitely a mixture of the two. It's been a long time, but the breakdown of the questions is something like 50% calculus (single variable, multivariable, and differential equations), 25% algebra (linear algebra and abstract algebra), and 25% other things (combinatorics, probability, complex analysis (maybe this fits under calculus?), etc.). A good review book will be a good start because it'll shallowly review all of the different areas you might end up seeing on the test. Then from there, it'll be good to review your coursework in the areas you're weak (or haven't covered). And make sure you remember calculus concepts well - they're a very large part of the test!</p>
<p>And I seem to remember the Princeton Review book being good. Just my two cents. The other posters probably have more experience with other books that they could comment on.</p>