At BrightLink Prep, all of our students ask us what a good score on the new revised GRE is. A good score depends on a lot of factors like your choice of university, program that you are applying to, whether or not you are asking for financial assistance etc.
Generally, we strongly advice all applicants from Pakistan (irrespective of their credentials) to aim for an above average score on the GRE. Here are some key factors that will help you identify your ‘Good’ score.
SEE ALSO: Average GRE scores of Pakistani Students!
In this Article
Choose your program
Identifying the program you are applying to is of utmost importance. This is because the GRE score requirements vary significantly by program. For instance, one of our students who was applying to a dual masters program in production and operations at top 10 schools required an average score of 166 (Quant) and 154 (Verbal). Similarly some one applying to the Electrical Engineering school at top 10 schools would need a 169 (Quant) 163 (Verbal).
Choose your University
Are you aiming for a particular school which offers your program? Recently a bunch of our students were applying to MIT and the average score they needed was in the 168 range for math and 164 verbal. Similarly someone applying to Rochester would need 164 on quant and 158 o verbal. It’s obvious that good scores vary from school to school. Therefore chose your universities before embarking on GRE preparation.
SEE ALSO: What is a Good GRE Score for Fulbright Scholarship?
Contact your schools admissions office to find if they have any special needs
Many schools in engineering for instance do not emphasize too much on the verbal or writing scores. However others are more stringent in their demands. Talk to the admissions office and provide some background of yours. Determiner is they have some special needs or “discounts”.
A word of caution: I’ll take engineering as an example here. A lot of engineering students who apply to U.S. are of the impression that all that matters on the GRE is the quant/math score. This is correct. But if your writing or verbal score is too low, this will raise suspicious alarms amongst the admissions committee. Therefore be aware of that. Do not let your self do below the average on the ‘unimportant’ sections.
What credentials do you have?
If you do not have an extraordinary GPA, work experience and research publications, then in this case GRE becomes of utmost importance. Nevertheless even if you have all of these, students from Pakistan must do better than average to improve their chances of success.
Many of us from Pakistan do not have “real solid” publications or work experiences. Above all, only a handful of our universities are recognized in the U.S. – therefore strive hard to do well on the GRE.
So what is a good score in re for a Pakistani applicant?
Well in our experiences all Pakistani applicants must do above the average requirements of the school and program. We say this because many of us are coming from educational backgrounds that are not recognized in the U.S. and on top of that we do not have any solid credentials to boast of.
To further hamper that, a lot of us also do not have research publications. In fact even if we do, not many of us have them published in recognized journals. Therefore for Pakistani students GRE score becomes a major differentiating factor. It provides the admissions committee a standard means for measuring your true potential. Therefore, take your GRE preparation very seriously.