PGRE Score of 840 (74%) - To send or not to send, that is the question

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PedroSouza
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PGRE Score of 840 (74%) - To send or not to send, that is the question

Post by PedroSouza » Thu Jan 02, 2020 3:40 pm

Hey guys! How you doing?

I'm applying to American and Canadian schools and some of those (most of them Canadian) don't require GRE scores. I got a 840(74%) score (not exactly what I expected, but ok) and I'm an international applicant. My question is: Should I report this score or leave the PGRE scores in blank?

Right now I'm thinking specially about whether to send it or not to UWaterloo and U. of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Thank you guys!

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Nishikata
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Re: PGRE Score of 840 (74%) - To send or not to send, that is the question

Post by Nishikata » Thu Jan 02, 2020 6:03 pm

UIUC says the pGRE is optional, so you don’t have to send it.
They should still fully consider your application materials.

“Optional” means it is only the icing on the cake. If the cake’s already good, then that’s sufficient. As you said it yourself, 840 isn’t quite your ideal score, so it is not a good idea to add this to an otherwise excellent profile.

jabennett2194
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Re: PGRE Score of 840 (74%) - To send or not to send, that is the question

Post by jabennett2194 » Mon Jan 06, 2020 4:55 pm

Nishikata wrote:
Thu Jan 02, 2020 6:03 pm
“Optional” means it is only the icing on the cake. If the cake’s already good, then that’s sufficient. As you said it yourself, 840 isn’t quite your ideal score, so it is not a good idea to add this to an otherwise excellent profile.
Disagree.
74% is great.
By not reporting, they may think its something more akin to 50% (what i got :oops: )

geekusprimus
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Re: PGRE Score of 840 (74%) - To send or not to send, that is the question

Post by geekusprimus » Mon Jan 06, 2020 9:59 pm

jabennett2194 wrote:
Mon Jan 06, 2020 4:55 pm
Nishikata wrote:
Thu Jan 02, 2020 6:03 pm
“Optional” means it is only the icing on the cake. If the cake’s already good, then that’s sufficient. As you said it yourself, 840 isn’t quite your ideal score, so it is not a good idea to add this to an otherwise excellent profile.
Disagree.
74% is great.
By not reporting, they may think its something more akin to 50% (what i got :oops: )
Depends. The bar can be a lot higher for international students because of the difficulties with long-term visas and funding.

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Nishikata
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Re: PGRE Score of 840 (74%) - To send or not to send, that is the question

Post by Nishikata » Mon Jan 06, 2020 10:32 pm

Not reporting does not always mean we have a low score. We may just do not want to take the test.
pGRE is not used in applying to Europe, and is getting less used by even US universities. (Stanford also recently makes it optional)

The candidate, I presume is Canadian who took undergraduate studies in Canada, does not need to include pGRE scores for application to UWaterloo and UToronto, for example. Hence it is safer to assume that the applicant does not report GRE scores because the applicant never took the test, and that's fine for "optional" schools. If I have to sit for pGRE/gGRE again for just applying to one US school, then I will not be very keen either.

PedroSouza
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Re: PGRE Score of 840 (74%) - To send or not to send, that is the question

Post by PedroSouza » Thu Jan 09, 2020 10:28 pm

Nishikata wrote:
Mon Jan 06, 2020 10:32 pm
The candidate, I presume is Canadian who took undergraduate studies in Canada[...]
Actually, I'm not from North America.

The possibility of interpreting the lack of a pGRE as a bad score really makes me feel uncomfortable.
geekusprimus wrote:
Mon Jan 06, 2020 9:59 pm
jabennett2194 wrote:
Mon Jan 06, 2020 4:55 pm
Nishikata wrote:
Thu Jan 02, 2020 6:03 pm
“Optional” means it is only the icing on the cake. If the cake’s already good, then that’s sufficient. As you said it yourself, 840 isn’t quite your ideal score, so it is not a good idea to add this to an otherwise excellent profile.
Disagree.
74% is great.
By not reporting, they may think its something more akin to 50% (what i got :oops: )
Depends. The bar can be a lot higher for international students because of the difficulties with long-term visas and funding.
What's your personal opinion, geekus?

geekusprimus
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Re: PGRE Score of 840 (74%) - To send or not to send, that is the question

Post by geekusprimus » Fri Jan 10, 2020 12:30 am

PedroSouza wrote:
Thu Jan 09, 2020 10:28 pm
What's your personal opinion, geekus?
It's a tough call. To make a long story short, some schools use the physics GRE as a metric to ensure that international degrees are roughly equivalent (or better) education to American bachelor's degrees. In fact, one of the schools I'm applying to only wants you to submit PGRE scores if you got your degree outside the United States. At the same time, international students are held to higher standards, so a lower GRE score hurts more.

I can't speak for Waterloo at all, but here's my advice for UIUC: the average score in 2018 was 870. If you got your undergrad in the US or have a solid way to show that your education is at least as good as you would get from a typical US school, don't submit your score. The 870 score includes both domestic and international students, so I would guess (take it with a grain of salt) that the average international student getting in had a score in the low 900s, which puts your 840 at a noticeable (although not insurmountable) disadvantage. At the same time, if you don't have something like name recognition for your school, an internationally recognized scientist as a recommendation writer, a publication in a big journal as a leading author, or some other way to show that you can be competitive, I would go ahead and submit that 840, polish your statement of purpose, and hope for the best. At this point, there's not much else you can do for this round of admissions.



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