<p>So, I'm coming out of the Math GRE today, and I'm not feeling too hot about it. Realistically, I'll be lucky to score above a 700.</p>
<p>I planned on applying to top tier programs (Columbia, Stanford, etc.), but now I'm not so sure.</p>
<p>Can anyone give some comments on just how important these scores are. People like to say 800 is the safe threshold, can anyone make me feel better and say otherwise (and mean it)?</p>
<p>That being said, can anyone suggest less competitive programs in Geometry/Topology and/or Complex Analysis? (I'm not sure what my interests are, I just know they're not PDE's). </p>
<p>If you are applying to top programs in math and have a GRE (Q) of < 750, I think that is a problem. Its not hard to get a high score on this test with adequate preparation, just try it again.</p>
<p>I assume drmambo was talking about the math subject test, not the general GRE, since today is one of the few days the subject tests are administered. I don’t know much about the subject tests, though.</p>
<p>I have heard from several universities that they use the subject GRE as a pre-screening tool. What the actual (hard or soft) cut-offs are is hard to say because most places don’t publish them. The only top program that is very explicit about their expectations is Berkeley (80th percentile score). </p>
<p>How much weight the score will carry depends at least partially on where you are applying from. The top programs have a history of swapping their students for graduate school; if you are currently at Harvard or Stanford or the University of Chicago and get strong letters of recommendation from eminent faculty, a 70th percentile score won’t matter nearly as much as if you were trying to break into the big league from a no-name school.</p>
<p>@Chandi, yep, I was talking about the subject test.</p>
<p>@Barium, I took the regular GRE about a month ago and got a projected 750 - 800 on the quantitative. Not to sound cocky, but I don’t think that score will be a problem. </p>
<p>I’m interested if any CC’ers are in, or know any people in, top programs with subject scores ~ 700. I’m just trying to gauge what’s up. I don’t know how “no-name” my institution is (I’m at McGill, by the way). </p>
<p>From the looks of it, McGill doesn’t send many people south (for various reasons) and many people don’t take the GRE’s (because we’re in Canada), so I don’t have much of a sample up here.</p>
Good for you, but I suggest that you read my post again. I was talking about the math subject GRE the whole way through.</p>
<p>
I am in a top math PhD program but I don’t know the GRE scores of my classmates. However, most of my classmates did extremely well on national or international math competitions (Putnam, IMO, etc), so I can’t imagine that they struggled on the math subject GRE. </p>
<p>Most of the grad students whose GRE scores I do know are friends from undergrad who were not shooting for the tippy top graduate programs. For what it’s worth, I have a friend with a score of 670 who is now a graduate student at UCLA, and another friend with a score of 640 at Michigan (though she has outside funding, so her situation is a bit different). </p>
<p>More general guidelines: Berkeley says that they are looking for at least an 80th percentile score (currently 780) and the University of Pennsylvania for 750.</p>
<p>Well for good or for bad, I cannot register for another test until April 2012, so what’s done is done. </p>
<p>That being said, I was wondering about the funding situation where admissions are concerned. Don’t grant awards and grad school admissions decisions come out at the same time? How are we supposed to tell grad schools that we have outside funding if we don’t know until (basically) after we’ve been admitted or rejected?</p>
<p>If you find out you’re funded after you’re rejected you call them up and let them know. If you were a borderline case (or somewhat lower), there’s a good chance they’ll change their stance on you.</p>
You could try to test as a stand-by, if you like. I have several friends who took the November test as stand-bys after they didn’t feel so hot about their performance on the October exam. If you think you could raise your score significantly, the benefits of a higher score probably outweigh the inconvenience of taking the test again.</p>