More and more Chinese students are attending graduate school in the U.S. ? , an increase of 15% from the previous year ? and how to get into the dream school is something weighing on the minds of many Chinese students.
Among my friends in China who, like me, wanted to pursue higher education in the U.S., the conversation was often about and how we planned to get in ? and when we thought about how we planned to get in, we often thought about our test scores.
In Chinese education, to a student. When I was at school, I remember striving for an excellent grade had been almost everyone?s goal. With that mentality, when my friends and former classmates started applying to U.S. grad schools, they put a lot of pressure on themselves to get a high score on the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). The GRE is a standardized test required for admission at most graduate schools.
People who got a good score on the GRE would share their study experiences on online forums, which others would read in the hopes of emulating their performance. Chinese students preparing to study abroad get very familiar with forums such as ?Xiaomaguohe.com,? ?Taisha? or ?Jituo.?
I also know people who spent a lot of money on classes to prepare for the GRE test, and people who dedicated a couple of months to studying; some people even took half a year to study.
I?m sure all that studying will eventually pay off in their scores, but I learned something valuable when I visited graduate schools recently in preparation for my own applications: the GRE score isn?t as important as my Chinese classmates made it out to be.
I went last month to an information session for one of my ideal schools. I?m planning to pursue a graduate degree in journalism, and I picked this school because it offers a unique program focused on practical experience. Luckily, the information session was held in Washington D.C., which is where I am right now.
There were about 10 people at the session, not including the university personnel. We had speakers who were current students and alumni, and the director of the program and the dean of the office came too.
At the session, most people were more interested in information about the program than in admission questions. They asked about the curriculum, project design, different concentrations, and career development after graduation. The answers from the representatives were very detailed and useful; especially for career planning, having the representatives talking about their own experiences gave us a prospect to think about for the future, which was very valuable.
I planned to ask about the school?s minimum GRE requirement; however, a girl who seemed to be even more concerned than me about her score asked the question before I got a chance.
The representative from the school responded that a bad GRE score would not disqualify you from applying to the program and, likewise, a really high score doesn?t automatically make you qualified for admission.
In other words, the GRE is not the standard by which admissions officers decide if you are qualified for their school. The representative also said that when they view applications, they?re putting the most emphasis on personal statements and work samples. Many graduate schools don?t even set minimum requirements for the GRE.
That?s not to say that the GRE doesn?t play a role in admissions decisions, or that applicants shouldn?t take it seriously. I know that some education agents in China use the GRE and other test score to help determine where students should apply. If you go in with a low score, they may not even recommend the top ranked schools to you. They will try to persuade you to consider applying to a school in the middle rank because your chances of admission would be higher.
When I was applying to undergraduate schools, was a barrier to applying to higher ranked schools. One of my friends from China encountered the same thing when she tried to apply graduate schools.
But it?s nice to know that the GRE doesn?t make or break your application, and that admissions committees understand how little our GRE score says about our ability and desire to study in their program.
My friend Yaqi Tong, who majors in Sociology and International Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and is also applying to graduate schools for next year, said of her experience taking the GRE, ?Particularly for test-takers whose first language is not English, they may memorize enough vocabulary to strive for an outstanding score on GRE. But, what?s the point