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GRE Subject Test for Statistics Program

Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2014 8:11 pm
by unclecat
I didn't do very well in the MGRE (720,65%), and some stat PhD programs require (or highly recommend/suggest, which I guess is just the synonym for require) me to submit the MGRE score as well. I was wondering how important is the subject test for those programs? Will this score hurt my application for some top statistics department?

Last week I talked about this with my professor who received his PhD from Stanford, and he said "I have no idea, but if I was in the committee I would expect you to get a 90%". And I was like "meh..."

Re: GRE Subject Test for Statistics Program

Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2014 8:49 pm
by MathCat
unclecat wrote:I didn't do very well in the MGRE (720,65%), and some stat PhD programs require (or highly recommend/suggest, which I guess is just the synonym for require) me to submit the MGRE score as well. I was wondering how important is the subject test for those programs? Will this score hurt my application for some top statistics department?

Last week I talked about this with my professor who received his PhD from Stanford, and he said "I have no idea, but if I was in the committee I would expect you to get a 90%". And I was like "meh..."
I would just say that my professor's views of the GRE were out dated. I'm not in the USA so these guys haven't seen the GRE since they wrote it, at which time it was normal for all applicants to top schools to have perfect scores. When they rescaled it this stopped happening. I think a 720 is perfectly respectable, especially since it doesn't test statistics. If they want you to send the score, you should.

Re: GRE Subject Test for Statistics Program

Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2014 10:49 am
by unclecat
MathCat wrote:
unclecat wrote:I didn't do very well in the MGRE (720,65%), and some stat PhD programs require (or highly recommend/suggest, which I guess is just the synonym for require) me to submit the MGRE score as well. I was wondering how important is the subject test for those programs? Will this score hurt my application for some top statistics department?

Last week I talked about this with my professor who received his PhD from Stanford, and he said "I have no idea, but if I was in the committee I would expect you to get a 90%". And I was like "meh..."
I would just say that my professor's views of the GRE were out dated. I'm not in the USA so these guys haven't seen the GRE since they wrote it, at which time it was normal for all applicants to top schools to have perfect scores. When they rescaled it this stopped happening. I think a 720 is perfectly respectable, especially since it doesn't test statistics. If they want you to send the score, you should.

Thank you so much for your reply! That really makes me feel much better. And I notice that there are two "cats" in this forum lol