Should I retake my GRE?

Question

Hi all, I am an Asian seeking admission to a Master of Library Science program in USA. I took my GRE yesterday and was very disappointed to see my verbal score at 500. I got 800 for my quantitative part, and have very good undergraduate academic results. I am also on a full-paying scholarship by my home goverment. May I know if my GRE result would be acceptable? I am very reluctant to retake my GRE as it was a very painful process for me. (ps I will be applying to very good schools such as university of michigan, illinois, north carolina, etc. )
Appreciate your advice.

Answer 1

I assume English is not your first language.

If I am correct, there may be some programs that will find your GRE verbal score to be acceptable. However, even though I understand that you do not wish to retake the GRE, I would strongly suggest doing so. A higher score on your GRE will be of tremendous assistance with admissions, and perhaps will even make you a candidate for funding.

MLS programs have become much more competitive than in the past, and there are many highly qualified candidates that apply for admission to these programs each year. A higher GRE score will help you compete with these candidates.

I wish you every success.

Answer 2

Call the schools and find out what their GRE requirements are and how heavily they weigh on the decision to admit a student. Some schools rely more on GPA, letters or recommendation and experience than on GRE. Others use GRE to "weed out" students up front and then look at these. You have to know what the school wants before you decide whether you should take it over or not.

P.S. 1300 is NOT a bad score at all. Many grad schools only require 1000.

Answer 3

That's actually a decent score. Most of the grad schools that I am looking at only require a 1000. However, some schools may be concerned with you verbal score since they usually require at least a 500 but expect somewhat higher.

If you don't want to retake the test, just make sure that you submit strong letters of recommendation. Make sure that your personal letters are well written and have no mistakes. Use you interview to show that you do have well developed verbal skills.

Good luck!

Answer 4

Wow, your government pays your tuition 100% to attend a school in America? Why in the world do they do that? No wonder it's so hard for American-born kids to get a college education these days. Their parents scrimp and save for a few decades and are lucky to have money to even go, without piling up years of debt thru student loans. Meanwhile foreign countries are paying their students to come here. Not fair. If they can do that, then our government should fund our kids to go to these other countries and clog up their candidate pool.

Answer 5

You only need to retake it if the schools your applying to require it for admission. If the schools you're applying to don't ask you to include your scores in your application material, why would you bother??