<p>780 Quantitative
670 Verbal</p>
<p>Should I retake? I am a chemistry major at an Ivy League, and would like to attend graduate school for a Ph.D. in chemistry. I'm looking at schools like UCSD, UCSF, and maybe Stanford and Berkeley.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>no – the percentiles should be ok.</p>
<p>95th percentile for verbal and
90th percentile for quantitative.</p>
<p>95th percentile in verbal is decent, since I am applying for chemistry, but 90th percentile at 780 is about average for top programs in chemistry. I hardly doubt it will be worth going for the extra 20 points on the quantitative section. But I am worried that my quantitative will be look at poorly upon by top chemistry programs.</p>
<p>What type of math background do you have? I feel like the 20 points aren’t going to have much effect. Especially if you’ve proven your knowledge in differential equations/advanced calc or linear algebra. 20 points is a mistake or two which largely should not have much effect. </p>
<p>I’m a chem major too and although I am not attending nearly as prestigious a school (a “research intensive” state university) I have similar scores (780, 680, 6.0). I’ve been told not to worry about those scores for top programs by my school’s department head.</p>
<p>I have a minor in math with 6 semesters of theory-based calculus/diffEq with some analysis and linear algebra mixed in. I feel that you will have proven your math capacity well enough completing the major work for Pchem…and 20 points off doesn’t suggest you cannot do the basic math tested. Just my opinion though</p>
<p>I’ve taken up to multi-variable calc, and will be taking linear algebra fall semester. Of course I’ve done P-chem, and will be taking quantum chemistry, so hopefully my math background is sufficient.</p>
<p>No one is going to care that you were slightly short of an 800 on quantitative. Don’t retake.</p>
<p>Don’t retake - those scores look good enough. Focus on your classes and the rest of your app.</p>
<p>I have no idea if Duke is a top school for chemistry (not my field), but perhaps you’ll find this somewhat reassuring:</p>
<p><a href=“http://gradschool.duke.edu/about/statistics/admitchem.htm[/url]”>http://gradschool.duke.edu/about/statistics/admitchem.htm</a></p>
<p>average GRE Q for chem PhD students: 726 (for 2009-10).</p>
<p>Focus your energies elsewhere.</p>
<p>Thanks for the data, eg1! It seems like I would have to worry more about my GPA than my GRE scores. My GPA is already low, and it will be difficult to raise it any during my last year. :(</p>
<p>Not required to re-take. Start talking to professors and see their interest level. 95th percentile is sufficient to get into the schools you have listed. But, with increased number of application in last 2 years, its good idea to talk to professors about your research interests.</p>
<p>There’s really nowhere to go on that quantitative score, and it’s far more likely you’ll score lower than higher. The GRE’s quantitative skew is ridiculous because they have to make the math part easy enough for the humanities and social science majors who haven’t taken a math class since 11th grade and therefore, those of us with a little bit more math training get basically meaningless scores. I mean an 800 is only the 94th percentile - that means 6% of the test-takers are getting perfect scores.</p>
<p>So don’t worry, especially if your grades in those math classes are really good.</p>