43: 2020 Updates on the GRE

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Hi everyone. Today I am going to be talking to you about the GRE. You might be thinking, if you have been listening to my podcast since last year, or if you've listened to every single episode, you might be thinking, wait. Didn't you already talk about the GRE before? Yes, I did. It was episode three, back in the end of October 2019, so about a year ago. But a lot has happened in a year, and my thoughts on the GRE have changed. They've shifted this year. I think that given everything that's happened this year, there are some changes, and I think it's important for you to know about these changes.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

So if you don't know what the GRE is, it's the Graduate Record Exam, the equivalent of the SAT, but to get into graduate school. A lot of schools and programs require it as part of their application process. It's a three hour exam. You typically take it in person at a testing site, and they will test you on your verbal knowledge, quantitative knowledge, and on your writing. That is the general GRE. There are also subject tests, subject exams, that are discipline specific. But for the purpose of what I'm talking about today, I'm talking about the general test.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

This year, though, because of the pandemic, all of a sudden, people couldn't go to test sites. What do you do if you can't go to a test site? What ETS did - ETS is the company that runs these testing sites. They transitioned to an online platform called the test at home option. The problem with that is that since it's relatively new, it did come with its kinks and with its issues. So it's not a perfect exam. Some of my students- not some, several of my students - ran into these issues when they took the exam. In our program, they are required to take it. Most of them did take it at home, and you're required to have a specific type of device, with specific- I don't even know what it's called. But you have to check how new and updated the software or the computer is. You have to have access to a video camera, you have to have relatively stable Wi Fi. For my students, the three hour exam, for some of them, because of technical issues, issues with their Wi Fi, issues with the exam itself, issues with the proctor. It went from three hours to five and a half or even six hours, so the timing doubled. This is already a timed exam, so it's aleady very stressful. Then on top of that having all these delays, having all these interruptions, of course is going to affect your score.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I think more admissions committees are keeping this in mind. That means that- in years prior, the GRE may have been required. In fact, in the last couple of years, I've noticed a trend of fewer and fewer schools and programs, departments considering the score, or considering the GRE when you submit it. Yes, it's still required, but they're not really considering it as part of their review process. This year, what's changed is that not only are fewer schools considering it, but actually fewer of them are even requiring it. I've seen a lot of different schools and programs are actually saying that the GRE test score is optional, or it's not required at all.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

That's what I really wanted to kind of stress to you all is, if you're applying to grad school this fall, I want you to do your homework. I want you to check all the websites for the schools that you're applying to and find out are they requiring the GRE. Sometimes that information is not easily available on the website. If that's the case, you need to contact the graduate advisor or whatever staff person you know you can contact for that program and ask them. It's okay to ask them if they will be considering and requiring the GRE this year. Don't worry, at least the staff members are not the people that are reviewing your application. They're not part of the admissions committee. It's okay to ask them questions. You don't have to feel like, oh. They're gonna think that this not the smartest question, or it's gonna make me look bad. No, go ahead and ask them your questions. Ask them about the GRE and get a firm yes, it's required, no, it's not required, or it's optional.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

My recommendation is, if they say it's optional, they actually mean it. Sometimes people say this is optional, but they actually mean it's not optional. In this case, it really is optional. I would encourage you not to send your scores, unless you did stellar. By stellar I mean, unless you scored in the 80th percentile or higher in the area that's most relevant to your discipline. So if you're an English, you got 80% or higher, a 158, 159, 160 and above in the verbal section. If you are in STEM field, want to get 159, 160 and above, again, over 80% in the quantitative section. If you're in the humanities and social sciences, you want to get 4.5 or higher in the writing portion. That's just what I've seen in terms of trends of what is a decent score. But if it's not required, don't send it. If it's optional, only send it if you have a good score.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

If it is required, this is where I want to say a little bit more. If it is required, go ahead and send it, even if you have a bad score. I've heard actually, I heard one individual who- I won't say their name, but who works with a lot of similar populations that I do, who are applying to grad school, say something along the lines of, try as much as you can to get her away with not sending the GRE score if you don't have to. Let them know that maybe the pandemic affected you and that because of that you couldn't take it. I don't really like fibbing. So unless that's the truth, unless you really couldn't take it this year, because of changes in your circumstances. Go ahead and say that if it's the truth.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

But I don't recommend that. If you did take the exam, if it is required, go ahead and send your score. But you will want to explain either in your personal statement, or in the portal, sometimes the application portal will have a section or some portion of it that asks- what does it ask? Is there any additional information you'd like to share with us? So if they ask for additional information, that's where you can mention any gaps in your application. That's when you can talk about if you've got a low GPA, or if you've got a low GRE score, or if you maybe took a quarter off, or you did very bad on a specific set of courses. That's where you would talk about the GRE. I know I already mentioned this in a former episode, but just keep that in mind. Keep in mind that if you're going to send your GRE score, if it's not the greatest score, you can explain yourself. Go ahead and listen to episode 38, on how to address the GPA, GRE and other gaps in your grad app, so you can figure out the language to use.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

But honestly, this is my opinion. Again, take it with a grain of salt. I don't know everything, but I'm just noticing trends. The trend that I'm noticing this year is that fewer and fewer schools, programs, departments really are going to care about the GRE this year. It's not going to make or break your application. It's just one component. What really will make or break your application are actually the components of your app that you are in control of, and those are your essays. So if I were you, after doing your homework, finding out which schools require the GRE, which don't, go ahead and send the ones you have to send. Write a short statement, a short little paragraph for those schools, and those schools only, justifying what happened with the GRE, and how it's not a testament to your potential. These other things show your potential. Then move on, then go to the things that really matter, which is focus on your essays. You want to spend as much time as you can, have as many eyes look over your essays as you can.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I think that's all I have to say about the GRE this year. I'm trying to think about any other questions that maybe some of my students have asked with regard to the GRE. Actually, one other thing I want to mention is if you do have to send the GRE score, don't forget to double check and make sure that the department actually receives your score. One way you can check is sometimes the application portal itself will let you know if it's been received. It'll have a checkmark or no checkmark, or it'll say received- yes, no. If it's not on the portal, go ahead and contact that staff person I mentioned earlier, the graduate advisor or whoever is the equivalent of that in that program, and ask them if they've received your score. Sometimes what happens is you'll send the score to the university, but not to the department specifically. So it'll get sent to their version of graduate division. It might be graduate division or some sort of registrar office, and they don't know to send it to a specific department. So the department knows, they can be in touch with grad division and say, so and so student has submitted their scores, do you have them? And then they can send them over. Do make sure you follow up with each school to make sure they actually received your GRE score. It is your responsibility to do that, not their responsibility to check up on you. All right. Now that's everything I have to say about the GRE. I hope you found that helpful, and I will talk to you all later.