Re: General tips for people applying 2010
Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 3:17 pm
I think this is true in the sense that for top schools, excellent grades and test scores are pretty much assumed, as there are enough applicants to fill out the ranks with great grades and scores. There are some exceptions of course, but for the most part, you get your grades, you get your scores, then it's the research and letters that set you apart.valkyrie wrote:The advice I was given from most professors is that for the top programs, research experience and letters are what gets you in while GPA and test scores are things that might keep you out. (In particular, I was told to aim for 80th percentile or higher on the PGRE, but that beyond that, test scores didn't really matter.) I would argue that research experience and letters are perhaps "more important" in that sense, but I think it's obvious from the profile threads that grades and scores definitely hurt a lot of people.