<p>Hello,</p>
<p>I am planning to pursue a PhD in political science and I just took my GRE last weekend. Would my score qualifiy me for a top school? I have heard conflicting reports about how important GRE scores are in admissions, so I am unsure if I should take them again. I would like to move to the east coast and am looking at schools like Columbia, Yale, and John Hopkins. </p>
<p>GRE:670V 740M
GPA:3.76 (3.88 major w/honors) with strong increasing trend in gpa. </p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>your scores are solid, but not distinguishing.</p>
<p>how hard did u study for it this time? how high do u think u could raise them?</p>
<p>it probably won't mean too much unless u can comfortably exceed 1500 on a re-write.</p>
<p>Check in with the programs you're interested in. For example, the Columbia PoliSci website indicates their successful applicants average in the 90th percentile.</p>
<p>That's in the vicinity of 640V and 780Q (the hard science & engineering people hose up the curve on the Quant). So you're in pretty good shape.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that your preparation, GPA, SOP, writing sample, and recs will all be more important than the GRE for admisssions.</p>
<p>I could probably raise my verbal about 50-70 points on a retake (I usually get about 730 on practice tests), but after reading through some posts it seems like my time would be better spent on other parts of the application.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the advice!</p>
<p>husky01,</p>
<p>What are you interested in politically? I went a good way through the poli sci PhD process, so I have some idea of what's involved.</p>
<p>A 1410 combined score IS distinguishing. It is often said that clinical psychology phD programs are the most selective, and their cutoffs are often at 1300. Some accept as little as 2% of applicants. You should be proud of the distribution, unless you think you can break 700 verbal by a lot. Sometimes graduate programs in the humanities and social sciences don't care too much about your math score. </p>
<p>Be happy with what you have, and make sure to get solid LOR's and provide an impeccable writing sample.</p>