Acceptance by PGRE Scores: 2011 and 2012

[quantum_fan]

Inspired by this topic that compiled data for 2008 - 2010 applicants, I spent some time going through the 2011 and 2012 applicant profile topics to get similar data. Similar to the previous topic, I took data for non-minority domestic males applying to traditional physics programs (no astronomy, applied physics, biophysics, engineering). I haven't done too much with the data other than compile it by school, but maybe someone will put together a nice infographic now that the data is all in one place, or better yet combine it with the data from the other topic. Hope this is helpful, let me know if there are any mistakes or other oddities (a lot of this was automated, so I wouldn't be surprised if there are some bugs).

Edit: data is now plotted out to top ~100 schools in usnews ranking. Raw data below.










Arizona
880A
720A

Arizona State
730A

Berkeley
990A
990A
980A
960A
950A
940R
930A
920R
910A
910A
910A
910A
900R
900R
890A
890R
880A
860A
860A
860R
850R
850R
840R
840R
810A
800R
790R
780R
780R
780R
770R
750R
720R

Boston
960A
900A
820A
730W
680R
660R

Brandeis
640R

Brown
890A
790R
700R
660R
650R

CMU
990A
900A

Caltech
990A
990A
990A
980A
960A
940A
930R
920R
910A
910A
910R
900R
890A
880A
860A
860R
850A
790R
780R
770R

Case Western
770A

Chicago
990A
990A
990A
980A
960A
910A
900R
900R
900R
890A
880A
860A
860A
850R
820A
820R
820R
820R
790A
770R
770R
720R
700R
650R

Colorado
990A
960A
950A
940R
910A
880R
860A
860A
850R
840A
840R
820R
810A
810W
790A
790R
780A
770A
750R
720R
710R
660R

Colorado State
720A
710R

Columbia
990A
980A
960A
960A
910A
910A
900R
900R
890A
850R
840A
820R
810A
800R
780W
770R
750R
660R

Cornell
990A
990A
990R
980A
970R
960A
950A
930A
910W
900A
900A
900A
900R
890R
880A
860R
850R
810A
770A
750R
700A

Dartmouth
930A
680A

Delaware
710A
680A
590A

Drexel
710A
590A

Duke
940A
720A
630R

Florida
890A
770R
730A
710A
650A
620R

Florida State
620A

George Mason
710R
680A

Georgia Tech
990A
820A
820A
730A
660A

Harvard
990A
990R
990R
990R
980R
970R
960A
960A
930A
910A
910R
910R
900R
900R
890A
890R
860R
860R
850R
850R
840R
820R
800R
770R
770R
750R

Idaho
550A

Illinois
990A
990A
980A
860A
860A
850A
840A
820R
820R
820R
810A
810R
800A
800R
790A
780A
750A
720A
660R
650R

Indiana
990A
940A
930A
840A

Iowa
620A

JHU
970A
910A
850A
820R
780A
730A
680A

Kansas State
810A

Kentucky
660A

LSU
770R

Lehigh
590A

MIT
990A
990A
990R
990R
990R
980R
970R
960A
960A
950R
950R
940R
930A
910A
910A
910R
910R
900R
900R
900R
890A
890R
890R
870R
860R
860R
860R
850A
850R
840R
820R
820R
790R
790R
770R
750R
750R
650R
620R

Maryland
990A
990A
970R
950A
930A
910A
900A
900A
900A
880A
860A
860A
850A
850A
820A
820R
800A
800R
790R
780A
780A
770R
770R
750A
750A
710R
680R
650R

Michigan
990A
990A
910A
900A
840R
820R
810R
770W
770R
750R
720A
650R

Michigan State
900A
840A
820R
780A
750R

Minnesota
940A
820A
790W
720A
720A

Montana State
720A

NC State
730A
630A

NYU
910A
900A
770R
770R
710R
700R

Nebraska
950A

New Hampshire
680A
640A

New Mexico
810A
800A
570A

Northeastern
710A
640R

Northern Illinois
820A

Northwestern
910A
660R
570R

Notre Dame
880A
780A
710A

Ohio State
820W
800A
800A
750R
720A
660A
660R
650W

Oregon
820A
750R
710A
710R
570R

Oregon State
890A

Penn
900A
900R
870R
860R
820R
780R
720R
680R
660R

Penn State
990A
940A
780R
770R
730A
650R

Pittsburgh
770A
770A
710A

Princeton
990A
990A
990A
990R
980A
970R
960A
930R
920R
910A
910W
910R
900A
900R
890A
890R
890R
890R
880A
860R
860R
850R
850R
840R
770R
750R
680R
620R

Purdue
820A
710A

RPI
990A
730A

Rhode Island
640A

Rice
950A
940A
710A
630R

Rochester
890A
780A
770R
750A
750A
720A
710A

Rutgers
900R
820W
700A
660R
590R

Stanford
990A
990A
990A
990R
990R
980A
970R
960A
940R
930R
920R
910A
910R
910R
900R
900R
890A
880A
870R
860A
860R
860R
860R
850R
850R
840R
840R
810R
810R
800R
790R
780R
780R
770R
770R
720R

Stony Brook
950A
900A
820R
800R
790R
710A
700A
590R

Syracuse
770W

Temple
590A

Texas
860A
860A
850A
770W
770R

Toronto
790A

Tufts
910R

UBC
820R
790A

UCLA
980A
930A
920A
910A
900A
900A
890R
880A
870A
860A
860A
860W
850A
850R
820A
800A
720W

UCSB
990A
990R
980A
970R
960A
920R
910A
910A
910A
910R
900R
890A
880A
870R
860A
860A
860R
850A
850R
820R
810A
800A
790A
780R
770R
750A
720R

UCSC
910A
890R
800A
770R

UCSD
990A
970R
920A
910A
870A
860A
850A
850A
840R
820A
800A
800A
790A
780A
780A
770A
770A
750A
730R

UC Davis
860A
810R
790R
770A
750R
730R
730R
710R
570R

UC Irvine
890A
790R
780A
770A
750R
720A
710A

UC Riverside
970R
710A
570R

UMass
910A
660R
650R
640A
590W

UNC
780A
660R
650A
630W
570A

USC
820A

Utah
710A

Vanderbilt
780A
660R
630R

Virginia
890A
820A
780A
680A
630R

Virginia Tech
630A

WSU
660A

Wake Forest
630A

WashU
870A
840A
750A

Washington
990A
990A
960A
940A
910A
900A
870A
840A
840A
820A
800R
790R
790R
780R
750R
720R
710R
630R

Waterloo
990A
970R
930A
770R

William and Mary
890A
890A
710A
630W

Wisconsin
990A
990A
940A
930R
890R
860R
840A
820A
820R
820R
790A
770A
720A
650R

Wisconsin Milwaukee
770A
490A

Yale
960A
900A
900A
900R
890R
860A
850R
840R
840R
820R
820R
810A
800R
790A
780R
780R
770R
730R
710A
700R

[Tom Joad]

This is very much appreciated. Good work!

[Tom Joad]

Here is the condensed information*

Green: likely to get in
Blue: PGRE won't make or break you
Red: unlikely to get in

*Assuming your GPA is comparable to your PGRE score (i.e. having a 990 but with a 3.0 won't guarantee you anything)

Berkeley
950+
810-940
800 and below

Boston
820+
690-810
680 and Below

Brown
890+
780-880
770 and below

Caltech
940+
800-930
790 and below

Chicago
910+
790-900
780 and below

Colorado
950+
770-950
750 and Below

Columbia
910+
810-900
800 and Below

Cornell
930+
700-920

Delaware
590+

Drexel
590+

Duke
720 +

Florida
890+
650-880

Georgia Tech
660+

Harvard
900-990
890 and Below

Illinois
840+
700-830
690 or below


Indiana
840+

JHU
850+
680-840

MIT
860-990
850 and below

Maryland
830+
720-820
710 and below

Michigan
900+
Below 890

Michigan State
840+
780-830

NC State
630+

NYU
900+
780-890
770 and below

New Hampshire
640+

New Mexico
570+

Notre Dame
710+

Oregon
Below 700

Penn
880+
870 and below

Penn State
940+
660-930
650 and below

Pittsburgh
710+

Princeton
870-990
860 and below

Purdue
710+

RPI
730+

Rice
710+

Rochester
710+

Stanford
860-990
850 and below

Stony Brook
900+
700-890

Texas
850+

UCLA
900+
800-890

UCSB
750-990

UCSC
770+

UCSD
750+

UC Davis
750 and below

Virginia
680+

WashU
750+

Washington
820+
810
800 and below

William and Mary
710+

Wisconsin
940+
720-930

Yale
910+
710-900


I deleted several where either there wasn't enough data or the data didn't tell you anything.

[photonic]

I knew if I posted the thread where whoanonstop compiled (now) old data someone would do it for the new data!
I promise to only use my powers for good.

Thank you to the both of you this is incredibly detailed and useful. I think it would be interesting if someone compared the data posted on physicsgre.com with all the data the universities actually receive. To see if the website is actually representative in terms of what it takes to get accepted and for what schools. That would of course require the universities to share their information with students which doesn't seem likely.

[amirpouyan]

That's a great work, i am working on the data for international students, and i will post them here when i finished the work, this will be a great database,

[WhoaNonstop]

Cool!

-Riley

[photomagnetic]

That's a great work, i am working on the data for international students, and i will post them here when i finished the work, this will be a great database,

is it done yet? =)
id like to see it
ive done for myself but i think it isnt accurate in so many ways

[poel5279]

ive done for myself

Can I see what you've done?

[Arbitrary]

ive done for myself

Can I see what you've done?

I second that request. It should be very interesting.

[photomagnetic]

im preparing a presentation for school about the data ive taken.
as soon as i finish that ill post the results guys

[poel5279]

im preparing a presentation for school about the data ive taken.
as soon as i finish that ill post the results guys

It would be actually personally be very helpful for me if I have it right now... Can you at least share it personally before you make the presentation? I understand if you can't, thank you.

[Arbitrary]

I did a little research on my own on the matter of international applicant acceptance by PGRE. I'll present some partial results, based on international students' application profiles of 2008-2013. My main conclusion is that above a certain school dependent threshold, the PGRE score is a rather poor predictor of admission probability. The second conclusion is that admission committees seem to not like applicants from China or India very much (hopefully for a respectable reason).
I specifically checked a bunch of top school, so don't be surprised if some of your target schools are not shown here. For each school and PGRE score, I'll mention the "admission probability" as the ratio of successful applications to the entire pool at that score.

Harvard:
990: 22%
980: 0%
970: 100%
900-960: 0%

Princeton:
990: 7%
980: 40%
970: 67%
960: 100%
900-950: 0%

Cornell:
990: 67%
980: 25%
970: 0%
960: 50%
950: N/A
940: 75%
930: 100%
920: 0%
910: 0%
900: 50%

MIT:
990: 35%
980: 0%
970: 33%
960: 100%
950: 0%
940: 25%
900-930: 0%

Caltech:
990: 56%
930-980: 0%
920: 50%
910: 100%
900: 0%

U Chicago:
990: 54%
980: 50%
970: 100%
960: 100%
950: 0%
940: 50%
900-930: 0%

UIUC:
990: 33%
980: 0%
970: N/A
960: 0%
950: 100%
940: 50%
930: 100%
900-920: 0%

U Michigan:
990: 67%
980: 0%
950-970: N/A
940: 100%
920-930: N/A
910: 100%
900: N/A

UCSB:
990: 29%
980: 33%
970: 0%
960: 0%
950: 100%
900-940: 0%

Berkeley:
990: 29%
980: 0%
970: 0%
960: 50%
950: 50%
940: 25%
900-930: 0%

Stanford:
990: 31%
900-980: 0%
(This in particular is rather depressing...)

[WhoaNonstop]

I did a little research on my on the matter of international applicant acceptance by PGRE

Thanks a lot! Now all these people who I inform have little to no chance of getting into a top 10 might actually listen to me. And yes, a lot of this is rather depressing.

-Riley

[mjgm]

I did a little research on my on the matter of international applicant acceptance by PGRE. I'll present some partial results, based on international students' application profiles of 2008-2013. My main conclusion is that above a certain school dependent threshold, the PGRE score is a rather poor predictor of admission probability. The second conclusion is that admission committees seem to not like applicants from China or India very much (hopefully for a respectable reason).
I specifically checked a bunch of top school, so don't be surprised if some of your target schools are not shown here. For each school and PGRE score, I'll mention the "admission probability" as the ratio of successful applications to the entire pool at that score.

Harvard:
990: 22%
980: 0%
970: 100%
900-960: 0%

Princeton:
990: 7%
980: 40%
970: 67%
960: 100%
900-950: 0%

Cornell:
990: 67%
980: 25%
970: 0%
960: 50%
950: N/A
940: 75%
930: 100%
920: 0%
910: 0%
900: 50%

MIT:
990: 35%
980: 0%
970: 33%
960: 100%
950: 0%
940: 25%
900-930: 0%

Caltech:
990: 56%
930-980: 0%
920: 50%
910: 100%
900: 0%

U Chicago:
990: 54%
980: 50%
970: 100%
960: 100%
950: 0%
940: 50%
900-930: 0%

UIUC:
990: 33%
980: 0%
970: N/A
960: 0%
950: 100%
940: 50%
930: 100%
900-920: 0%

U Michigan:
990: 67%
980: 0%
950-970: N/A
940: 100%
920-930: N/A
910: 100%
900: N/A

UCSB:
990: 29%
980: 33%
970: 0%
960: 0%
950: 100%
900-940: 0%

Berkeley:
990: 29%
980: 0%
970: 0%
960: 50%
950: 50%
940: 25%
900-930: 0%

Stanford:
990: 31%
900-980: 0%
(This in particular is rather depressing...)

What was your target-group for this analysis and where did you get the data?

I have found some profiles on GradCafe which evidently don't match with this.

[Arbitrary]

My target group would be international students with PGRE 900+, applying to the physics departments at the schools mentioned above.

Riley:
It is even more depressing to note that an applicant with a score of 970 has on average a better chance of admission than an applicant with a score of 980, although in reality that's probably not true.

[mjgm]

My target group would be international students with PGRE 900+, applying to the physics departments at the schools mentioned above.

Ok. Got that. I meant the research you did was for only 900+ people; right? Then why do you say it is depressing? You have not included the records of others who may have got in.

[Arbitrary]

My target group would be international students with PGRE 900+, applying to the physics departments at the schools mentioned above.

Ok. Got that. I meant the research you did was for only 900+ people; right? Then why do you say it is depressing? You have not included the records of others who may have got in.

You are partly right. It was brought to my attention that a single international applicant has managed to get into Stanford with a PGRE as low as 800.
These cases do exist, but I'm suspecting that most of them are some sort of super researchers with loads of experience and (more importantly,) connections.
It is likely that the more usual sort of international applicants would have to rely on exceptional PGRE (and other stats as well), and still have a depressingly low chance of being admitted to their top choice school.

[mjgm]

My target group would be international students with PGRE 900+, applying to the physics departments at the schools mentioned above.

Ok. Got that. I meant the research you did was for only 900+ people; right? Then why do you say it is depressing? You have not included the records of others who may have got in.

You are partly right. It was brought to my attention that a single international applicant has managed to get into Stanford with a PGRE as low as 800.
These cases do exist, but I'm suspecting that most of them are some sort of super researchers with loads of experience and (more importantly,) connections.
It is likely that the more usual sort of international applicants would have to rely on exceptional PGRE (and other stats as well), and still have a depressingly low chance of being admitted to their top choice school.

Ok. Right. True.

[poel5279]

What's the sample size for this? Also, are you just using the profiles that was uploaded onto physicsgre.com?

[Arbitrary]

What's the sample size for this? Also, are you just using the profiles that was uploaded onto physicsgre.com?

1. The sample size is highly dependent on the school dn the GRE score. The largest samples are usually found on the 990 scores (10-20 for most schools). For most lower scores the samples sizes are about 1-5.
2. Indeed, only profiles from physicsgre.com were used. If I were to add some information I know from private conversations, the results would look slightly more optimistic.

[poel5279]

Well, what I am thinking is, although you have done great work on admission statistics for students with score 900-990,
it does not say much about 800-890 or even below, in my opinion.
First, there is lack of data at physicsgre.com of international students with 800-890 applying to these schools.
Second, there does not seem to be that strong of a correlation here.
You have clearly shown that many times that students with 990 has lower admission rate than students with lower pgre score.
This certainly seems to show that pgre is not everything.

Thank you for the work!

[mjgm]

Well, what I am thinking is, although you have done great work on admission statistics for students with score 900-990,
it does not say much about 800-890 or even below, in my opinion.
First, there is lack of data at physicsgre.com of international students with 800-890 applying to these schools.
Second, there does not seem to be that strong of a correlation here.
You have clearly shown that many times that students with 990 has lower admission rate than students with lower pgre score.
This certainly seems to show that pgre is not everything.

Thank you for the work!

Check this page: http://www.thegradcafe.com/survey/index ... =a&o=i&p=3. You will find an international female accepted by MIT with PGRE 740!

[Monkerest]

I wonder if anyone would want to combine this with the 2010 and earlier data. It would increase the sample size and might be more accurate... Some of the stories being told by the separate batches of data are very different.

Compare the numbers for Brown, for example.