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GRE scores and Score Select

Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 4:34 pm
by meredith
Hey All,

So when I took the Math GRE last year I sucked it up pretty hardcore (~16th percentile). I ended up taking another year at my undergrad (adding a CS minor and taking a couple of grad classes) and I'll be retaking it this year and trying my applications again.

Do you guys think it would be in my favor to include my old GRE score, or should I just send my new one? I'm not sure if the old one would help play into the "turned her shit around" narrative, or would just make me look bad.

Thoughts?

Re: GRE scores and Score Select

Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 12:04 pm
by Legendre
Personally I would just send my best score. Because the professors reading your application are probably just going to skim through it (based on past PhD application + interview experience), and is unlikely to think that deep.

Furthermore, if he is faced with hundreds of near identical applications, all with outstanding grades and good GRE scores, he might use your past failure as a sign of weakness to eliminate your app. i.e. Failed but turned around < never failed before.