What's a good score?

Forum for the GRE subject test in mathematics.
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zhangvict
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Joined: Wed Aug 26, 2015 6:23 pm

What's a good score?

Post by zhangvict » Sat Oct 24, 2015 6:04 pm

Some schools like Berkeley say that below 80%, your score begins to look bad. Any resources on what other schools think?

p-adic
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Re: What's a good score?

Post by p-adic » Sat Oct 24, 2015 6:15 pm

Well I guess anything below Berkeley is a bad school.

AMGMScrub
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Joined: Thu May 28, 2015 3:20 am

Re: What's a good score?

Post by AMGMScrub » Sat Oct 24, 2015 7:00 pm

That's not the cutoff for Berkeley, but they do insist that if it's below 80%, you have other aspects of your application balancing that weak point. Other schools may or may not have cutoffs. They just don't publish those information. This is my 2 cent.

zhangvict
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Joined: Wed Aug 26, 2015 6:23 pm

Re: What's a good score?

Post by zhangvict » Sat Oct 24, 2015 8:00 pm

Of course there are many very good schools apart from Berkeley. What I mean is that Berkeley is sort of a dream for me in terms of interest and fit, and I want to see if any other schools have a similar stance on the GRE to maybe see how seriously Berkeley takes the 80% thing, whether it's common etc.

p-adic
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Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2015 6:42 pm

Re: What's a good score?

Post by p-adic » Sat Oct 24, 2015 8:08 pm

Look up Penn's numbers.

IMO Berkeley is overrated as far as being a dream school. Cutthroat environment, crappy area, tons of cars on campus get broken into, extremely expensive city, ugly dense campus, horrible traffic (though 24/580 aren't as bad as 680), etc. (It's right next to Oakland after all.)

Tons of old threads here have info on other schools. Just read where people got accepted/rejected in years past and look at their stats.

AMGMScrub
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Re: What's a good score?

Post by AMGMScrub » Sat Oct 24, 2015 9:13 pm

I think Berkeley cares to some extent about the 80%. But the answer isn't black or white. I'm sure there are people that got in without hitting this mark (I know someone that did). But it's probably best to email the program about it if you're concerned about that.

EDIT: Most (if not all) of what p-adic is mentioning about Berkeley is true.

p-adic
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Re: What's a good score?

Post by p-adic » Sat Oct 24, 2015 9:44 pm

Penn says they want 750+. What is that, like 70%?
Ohio State publishes some old information here: https://math.osu.edu/grad/future/application/faq

AMGMScrub
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Re: What's a good score?

Post by AMGMScrub » Sat Oct 24, 2015 9:56 pm

It seems that the bar for international students is higher than domestic. Perhaps that's your concern in Berkeley's 80%. I don't know too much about the case for international students. Sorry. It might be a bit higher than the 80% since I'd imagine that most international applicants tend to score higher on the subject GRE test.

p-adic
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Re: What's a good score?

Post by p-adic » Sat Oct 24, 2015 10:20 pm

I think the risk is just higher for internationals, so the reward should be higher. I'm sure tons of internationals get 50 or 60% on the MGRE. They probably just don't get in anywhere and we never hear from them again.

functorial
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Re: What's a good score?

Post by functorial » Sat Nov 14, 2015 10:26 pm

I have heard that the bar is higher for international students: American professors don't know as much about your education system, so they don't know to interpret grades and need to lean on a test score more. This might be different if you're coming from Oxford or something.

This spring, I had a UCLA grad student tell me that while the website says they expect an average successful applicant to have about an 80%, the real cutoff is 60%. (As in, if your score is below 80% you can still get in with other strong points, while if it's below 60% they don't read the application.) He said this at lunch with a professor who was on the admissions committee, although said professor didn't say anything in response, so take that as you will.

I got into Berkeley with a 76%, but I have no idea what my classmates' scores were. I strongly suspect that while GRE scores above 80% are nice, they are not at all a defining factor.

Also, in defense of Berkeley: the department doesn't feel at all cutthroat. Of course, I may feel very different when I'm actually a PhD candidate...

MathCat
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Re: What's a good score?

Post by MathCat » Sun Nov 15, 2015 12:58 am

I'm international, but not "very" international (that is, I am from a Western, English-speaking country). I scored 800 and got in everywhere I applied except for the top 10 schools. One of those was UC Berkeley. Take that as you will.



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