<p>Hello everyone I'm new to the board please help
I'm studying Civil Engineering at Fresno State 3.56 GPA overall 3.89 major GPA
took GRE twice: GRE1: Q790 V390 GRE2: Q740 V550
no research experience (I intend to do a little bit of research in the next few months before I file my applications)
2 months internship
decent rec letters</p>
<p>what are my chances at top dog structural engineering programs like Stanford Berkeley MIT & Cal Tech?
I'm pondering about taking the GRE for the third time because my Q score actually regressed by 50 points the 2nd time I took GRE. should I do it?</p>
<p>The vast majority of engineers have quant scores similar to yours, and due tio this many schools look at verbal. Your verbal is low, if you think you can jack it up 200-300 points then go for it. </p>
<p>Are you a non English speaker?</p>
<p>550 verbal is not low. it’s the average for top engineering schools. what’s the percentile at 550 by the way? if you improve it by 150 you are already at 90% percentile I believe. one thing I am not sure about the GRE is that if they look at your highest scores or the latest ones only. I lean towards the former one so if that’s case you will have Q790 and V550 which is not bad, it’s the average. your GPA is about the average too. that also means there are half of the applicants who have better stats than you. how are you going to stand out? structural engineering at Cal and stanford have an admission rate of 30%. being average is not enough to get you in. from what you provided I don’t see any other outstanding credentials. how ‘decent’ are your rec letters? do they show your passion? how is your SOP? are you able to tell them about much you love engineering and how important grad school is to you? what’s your drive?</p>
<p>the bottom line right now is, you are good enough to apply but not good enough to stand out. you need to polish your app more.</p>
<p>All I am saying is that if another applicant has a 700 verbal and you have a 550, you will most likely loose.</p>
<p>I find it funny someone touting the importance of the verbal score or they will ‘loose’ hehe.</p>
<p>Engineering grad schools do not put importance on the verbal at all, as long as you reach a certain cut off point (average)… it becomes a moot point. I wouldn’t retake the GRE.</p>
<p>The important question is are you trying for phD or MS in Structural? For phD you have no shot at top schools since they have about .2-.3 higher average gpa’s and come with more experience in research.</p>
<p>For the Masters level you are competitive. Don’t expect any funding though.</p>
<p>Look into Georgia Tech for MS in structural, they have a huge program, top 10 and i know people will slightly lower stats than yours get in at MS level. Purdue is a similar case.</p>