How important is the quant score for PhD admission in Mathematics?

Forum for the GRE subject test in mathematics.
CE123
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat May 18, 2019 7:14 pm

Re: How important is the quant score for PhD admission in Mathematics?

Post by CE123 » Thu Dec 12, 2019 6:47 am

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Last edited by CE123 on Wed Feb 19, 2020 12:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Sampaoli
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Dec 11, 2019 1:49 pm

Re: How important is the quant score for PhD admission in Mathematics?

Post by Sampaoli » Thu Dec 12, 2019 9:51 am

CE123 wrote:
Thu Dec 12, 2019 6:47 am
Yup, holistic approach basically means that they take into account as much as they can - including mGRE and regular GRE and grades and rec letters and ..... It doesn't mean that you don't need good scores. I also agree with your assessment that basically all of the top schools require the mGRE, mid tier schools either require or "strongly recommend" it, and lower ranked/unranked schools are the only ones I've seen that don't require it. (For pure math - applied may be a bit different)
I wouldn't lose my mind if I had a low GRE score. If it is too low, I would write a paragraph in my personal statement explaining the reasoning of such score. Over emphasizing these scores is a common mistake taken by applicants. Some Top 10 schools are even discussing the complete removal of GRE submission. My admission committee does not even bother looking at these scores.

You should by all means maximize every portion of your application! No serious graduate program will pick you by your GRE score. No school will avoid looking at the rest of your file if you have a low score. In the end, you have to really shine somewhere, that is it. I have never seen a committee discussion with sentences of the type: "X and Y are comparable but X has a better GRE score, lets send him an offer".

Faculty is also aware that these standardized tests are not good predictors of success in graduate school in mathematics. Even worse, depending on your background, there are studies that claim a negative correlation to success in academia.

dujiahan
Posts: 37
Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2019 8:50 pm

Re: How important is the quant score for PhD admission in Mathematics?

Post by dujiahan » Wed Dec 25, 2019 1:24 am

Integreat wrote:
Tue Nov 26, 2019 8:22 pm
jimmy wrote:
Mon Nov 25, 2019 8:11 pm
The general GRE score is useless and is used as a filter. If you are applying to PhD in a heavily quantitative discipline such as math and statistics, the general GRE Q is a joke. That said, anything below the 90th percentile is going to hurt. In addition, you should look at the average of the admitted applicants. People admitted with low mGRE scores may have strength in other areas.
While I agree with the most of your response, I don't think 90th percentile would be the "cutoff". From what I've heard, the general GRE really doesn't matter that much. The reading/writing portion is used to assess teaching capability (especially as an international applicant), while the quantitative portion is largely ignored (unless it is alarmingly low). I don't think anyone reasonable would consider a 70th percentile or so "low". Obviously this is going to depend on the program, but I think people tend to be understanding with these things. I'm going into geometry and most of the quantitative part of the general GRE is like data analysis/statistics/combinatorics, which I haven't done since high school.
Dopeboyz wrote:
Tue Nov 26, 2019 4:35 pm
Thanks for the support guys. I don't know if it is worth retaking because I'm not aiming for the top 35 schools. The highest-ranking of the school I want to go is around 39 or so. I feel like I should focus more on my SOP.
I personally wouldn't stress too much about it. See how this cycle goes, improve for the next one (depending on finances of course). When I talked to some faculty at Princeton, they said not to worry about my MGRE score (75th percentile at the time). They said the LoR were far more important, and to focus on those. I can't remember where I saw it, but I remember a well respected geometer at a different institution said that he judges applicants by "40% LoR, 30% personal statements, 20% research/writing, 10% other", where the GRE falls into other. Don't despair!
Well, then I guess grades don't matter for him.

Integreat
Posts: 88
Joined: Sat Nov 10, 2018 11:29 pm

Re: How important is the quant score for PhD admission in Mathematics?

Post by Integreat » Wed Dec 25, 2019 1:41 am

dujiahan wrote:
Wed Dec 25, 2019 1:24 am
Well, then I guess grades don't matter for him.
If you’re talking about my last reference, I’d assume grades fall under the “10% other” :)

dujiahan
Posts: 37
Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2019 8:50 pm

Re: How important is the quant score for PhD admission in Mathematics?

Post by dujiahan » Wed Dec 25, 2019 1:54 am

Integreat wrote:
Wed Dec 25, 2019 1:41 am
dujiahan wrote:
Wed Dec 25, 2019 1:24 am
Well, then I guess grades don't matter for him.
If you’re talking about my last reference, I’d assume grades fall under the “10% other” :)
Well, ten percent for grades and GREs and other stuff, so grades only make up a very small, perhaps negligible portion.



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