I have a 4.0 score on GRE AW. I am applying for PhD in EE at Stanford, Berkeley, Michigan etc. Is it very bad?

Question

I should also state that I come from Romania, I have a GPA of 3.42 and have co-authored 10 papers and a patent and have held four lectures in related fields of engineering. Is the AW score really bad? Also on GRE I have 560 verbal and 760 quant. What are my chances in your oppinion? How are the scores, GPA etc? You shoud know better since you know the system. Thanks!

So do you believe that a sy 780Q, 600V and 4.5AW would increase my chances dramatically? Should I take the test again??

Answer 1

The bad news is that the 4.0 puts you in the 32nd percentile in the AW section. The good news is that since you want a PhD in EE -- those departments probably don't care much about your AW score.

The 560 verbal score is in the 65th percentile. This would be bad if you were going into a field like literature -- but is not so bad for a non-Native English speaker in the sciences.

The 760 quantitative score sounds great -- but is only at the 85th percentile. This (together with your 3.42 GPA) is certainly good enough to get you into a lot of PhD programs -- some at very good schools. But your list is pretty ambitious. I suspect that most of the students accepted to EE PhD programs at those schools have higher GPAs and have quant scores of 790-800.

If it weren't for the ten co-authored papers, I'd say you have no chance at Michigan, Berkeley or Stanford. With the papers, I think you have a shot. However, you ought to also apply to schools that are ranked -- but ranked a little lower than those. All of the other Big-Ten schools have excellent engineering programs. I'm sure that some of them would accept you.