Rate My Chances

Graduate School
1

<p>Really unsure what my chances are regarding grad school, hope someone can give me a better idea.</p>

<p>GPA: 3.55 (3.65 according to my college, it goes down due to my semester abroad) Major: Political Science, 3.9 major GPA.
I went to a non-elite state university (ranked around 100 in US News and World Report) and graduated in May 2009.
GRE: 490V/770Q/5.5 Writing
Resume: A few internships, nothing special besides that. Done a lot of traveling since graduation which has held back my work experience but was definitely worth it.
Recommendations: Should be good.</p>

<p>Applying to: University of Florida Masters in Management, Duke MMS, Pepperdine Global Business, MIT Political Science, Texas Global Policy, Berkeley Public Policy, Cornell ILR, LSE</p>

<p>Just wondering what my chances are at those schools, and yes, I know a bunch of them are probably reaches. And if anyone can tell me about other business related graduate programs that don't require lots of experience, or Public Policy programs that I'd have a good shot at, let me know.</p>

2

<p>Do you need to be taking the GMAT for business schools?- check on it. Also, you have a low verbal score-look at the table of GRE scores for general fields you are interested in. Retake the GRE after more study to be competitive. Discuss schools/programs with your advisor/professors who would be writing your letters of recommendation.</p>

3

<p>I’m not trying to get a MBA, just want a business-related program for people with little experience. UF, Duke, and Pepperdine all do not require GMATs for their programs.</p>

<p>And I would retake the GRE, but I did a few practice tests and never broke 530 on the verbal. There’s too much vocabulary for me to learn (which is really the only reason why my score is so low), as I find the structure of the actual questions to not be difficult. Is it really worth it to retake it when my score won’t go up that much? I believe a 490 is the low end of how I would do, but I don’t think my high end is much higher. And does my 5.5 writing make up for it a little bit?</p>