<p>Hi. I'm a current Computer Science undergrad and just signed up to take the GRE for the first time on August 8, so I will be taking the new GRE. I have three questions. </p>
<p>1) The first is short- is there any way to map scores on the old GRE to the new GRE, so that I can have an idea of what schools expect? That is, can I say that, for example, a 600 on the old GRE is equivalent to a 160 on the new GRE? If not, does anyone know what the standard deviation will be on the new GRE? I believe that on the old GRE the distribution was mean=500 and sigma=100, but I haven't been able to find what ETS is going to make the distribution on the new GRE.</p>
<p>tl;dr: Is there a function to map an old GRE score to a new GRE score?</p>
<p>2) Also, I'd like some advice on what score I should aim for. I am a CS minor and math minor and I want to go to library school, hopefully with a fellowship. My GPA is 3.7 cum, 3.9 in major. (3.95 at a community college where I have taken a number of classes). I am graduating a year early with the major and minor and I have prior research experience on a grant. I plan to apply to a number of highly competitive library science programs, including University of Illinois, Rutgers U, Drexel U, UNC, U of Pittsburgh, and maybe U of Michigan. Many of these don't even require a GRE, but I hope to get a good score to impress them and possibly get a fellowship or grant.</p>
<p>3) Finally can I map my SAT scores to an expected GRE score? 700 reading, 710 math, 640 writing (ouch!)</p>
<p>Joe–there are very, very few fellowships for MLS/MLIS programs. What little award $$ there are go to PhD students. You may be offered some work/study or if you’re lucky a partial TA, but grant money is not likely. </p>
<p>Your computer skills are a definitely plus when applying. Are you looking a technical services specialization?</p>
<p>I’d doublecheck on the GRE requirement. IIRC, when I was applying 5 years ago most programs required with a GRE score OR a already completed Masters. (I went to Drexel and I know they wanted one or the other So did Arizona.)</p>
<p>I looked back and Rutgers absolutely requires the GRE. They even give a minimum- no lower than 25th percentile QR and 57th percentile writing. Most other schools waive the GRE for a certain GPA (which I have) but some require it.
I also looked back at the fellowships, just to make sure that I hadn’t misread, and it seems there are some-- especially at Rutgers. (Rutgers is likely my first choice because I have to go somewhere nearby to where I live with my parents due to health reasons.)</p>
<p>I am hoping that my history might help me get this money. I’ve worked in one library for five years as circ staff, assistant, etc, the research project I am doing now is with three tenured librarians at my school library (TCNJ) and have volunteered at three additional libraries. Any more thoughts?</p>
<p>You wouldn’t happen to know the answers to my other questions would you?</p>
<p>Thank you very much for your help. Always good to meet another librarian :)</p>
<p>Hate to discourage you, but you’ll find many of your classmates have library experience. Some quite significant. While yours might be a bit more extensive than some, it’s not that uncommon. Good luck, though!</p>
<p>As for the GRE mapping-- I haven’t seen anything. It’s possible ETS hasn’t finalized scoring. I know they’ve posted that those who take the new GRE early (Aug-Sept) will have their score reports delayed until at least mid-November. I suspect that’s because ETS will will using those early test takers to confirm and perhaps renormalize their data.</p>
<p>It will be interesting to see. I suspect that based on the smaller range ofpossible scores for the new test, there will be more clustering of scores around the middle and fewer outliers–i.e. harder to score high. But this is merely my guess.</p>
<p>SAT (2006): 770Q, 800V
GRE (2011): 770Q, 770V</p>
<p>I prepared for both – probably about 20 hours over a month for the GRE, about 1/3 verbal and 2/3 quant. I started out just doing quant but when I started getting quant scores 50-100 above my verbal scores I backtracked. Mostly, I just needed to spend more time probing the depths of non-trivial questions, especially reading comp, and leave 10 minutes on my clock instead of 15. I did write down a few dozen list words whose definitions I’d previously had subtly wrong, which helped once.</p>
<p>For most people, though, polarscribe is right: the verbal is tougher. Even humanities applicants are twice as likely to get a 700 in quant than verbal (15% vs. 8%.) For math applicants, my friend who walked in cold and got an 800Q 650V without studying wasn’t unusual – except that his verbal score was a bit high. 24% of math applicants break 600 on the verbal, whereas 30% hit 800 on the math. I know many aren’t native English speakers, but… seriously. I hope the new GRE normalizes this stuff.</p>
<p>Thanks guys! That’s very helpful. So I guess that nobody knows what I should aim for when I take the new GRE since we don’t know the score distribution yet?</p>
<p>The scores will be recorded both as raw scores and as percentiles. If you are in the first group of test-takers, expect the percentile to change over time, for better or worse. I expect graduate programs to look at percentiles and not raw scores until they, too, get a better idea of the range.</p>
<p>Old vs new GRE will not be available for score comparison until mid November. They will take 3 full months of tests and scoring before they will release scores and before they will have a tentative comparison for old vs new. They will not release SD’s, mean etc until Nov. And yes, they will be tentative and likely to move in the first year or two. </p>
<p>For this reason, there are a few grad programs requiring the old test.</p>