<p>I am planning to attend graduate school in organic chemistry. I am from a top 60 undergraduate institution.</p>
<p>3.9 gpa,
GRE 520v 650q 3.5a
3 LOR from 3 prof i've done research with.
ive given an oral presentation and 2 poster presentations at ACS affiliated symposia.
I do not have any pubs, but have been researching for 2.5 yrs
I am expecting a score of atleast 770 on chem gre.</p>
<p>my GRE score is mediocre at best, but i hope they can look past that dumb exam</p>
<p>I am applying for 10 schools</p>
<p>princeton, chicago, scripps, berkeley (i guess this one is interchangeable), UC Irvine, UCLA, UPenn, Pitt, Purdue, and Boston C.</p>
<p>Do you think I should apply to safer schools?</p>
<p>GRE too low, especially your quant and writing. I mean, you probably score even lower in the quant section than the competitive applicants in the social sciences. I would encourage you to retake it and get at least 700 in the quant section. As for the writing, aim for a 4.0.</p>
<p>Based on your research experience, GPA, and presumably strong LORs, I think you’ll get into at least a couple of those schools; however, to be safe, I suggest adding one or two less competitive programs, just in case. It may end up being overkill – for all we know, you could be accepted everywhere – or it could be a career-saver. Anytime you have one part of your application out of whack, you need to apply more broadly since no one knows the character of individual department adcoms.</p>
<p>thanks for the input. i myslef was dissapointed with my performance on the gre, but i hope many of the schools may look past it. its a little late for a retake, and taking the exam isnt really a joyride.</p>
<p>but i also think it is a good idea to apply to one safety schhol. any schools you reccomend?</p>