Applications, Admissions and the dreaded GRE ;-)

[perfect2afault]

First, thanks to everyone who has offered me such great and helpful advice during this somewhat scary process. I will be taking the GRE in the next couple of weeks... please keep your fingers crossed

Comments

[skeetied]

He absolutely wants to apply by the funding deadline. In terms of graduate school, funding generally doesn't mean financial aid -- it means fellowships and teaching assistantships that will allow him to get paid and have his tuition covered, without leaving loans that will have to be paid off post-graduation.

Is your friend a good test taker? How much did he study for the SATs and how did he do on them? I'd consider questions like that, but I doubt it will look good to admissions committees to not have taken them. Even if your friend tries to explain it away as he just decided to start applying, that's going to make him look disorganized or shaky about his plans. (Personally, I did not study for either the SAT or the GRE, but got excellent scores on both, attributed to many years of high school Latin and Greek, as well as a very firm understanding of math.)

[tisiphone]

Has he taken a practice test? I'd say the first step is to do that and see how much prep he actually needs. He absolutely wants to apply by the funding deadline, because that's what's going to make the difference between him paying for his education and someone else paying for it (and in some programs, you have to get funding your first year or it's much harder to get it other years.) With a January deadline, he could probably take the test in November safely, and he won't need to worry about a subject test. That gives him almost 2 months to prep, which if he's a strong test taker should be plenty.

[smyleykyley]

Your friend should definitely bite the bullet and take the GRE. Take it as late as the first week of November, but by all means take it. I think having a low score is going to look far better than having no score. And there is still plenty of time to study--he could take a full month to study. That is, really, plenty of time.

[mysticblossom]

I don't know anything about poli sci, but I'm going to echo what others have said and say he should take it. It will most likely increase his chances of getting funding (which he definitely wants!). He has a high GPA, so even with a low GRE score his application should look okay. If the school says he will be accepted on provision if he doesn't take the GRE, that probably means he won't get funding if he doesn't take them.

[juicy_eli]

Is he applying to PhD school (I'm assuming because you mentioned "funding")? I suggest he should take the GRE if he wants to get funded in his studies. Also, if he wants to get outside funding, many also ask for GRE scores.

He can do it with a month of intensive study, a few hours everyday should do it, I'm assuming. That is, if he's a good standardized test taker. (I'm horrible, so it'll take me months of studying just for a mediocre score). I agree with the previous RE of first taking a practice test, and seeing how he scores on that.