I was accepted the the 4th ranked university in the world but not the 31st ranked school. This makes me wonder if US schools place too much emphasis on standardized test scores and reject students on that basis almost alone. My quant score on the GRE was flat out embarrassing - took it twice and score did not change. My verbal score put me in the 93 percentile of all who take the exam. My writing scores were above average but I think I write better than I did on the exam. No, I know I write better than I did on the exam; I have 4 A's in college English comp and literature to prove that. Plus the A's on all those poli sci papers I wrote and countless history essays.
The stress put on these tests are incredibly unfair. I know I would have done well in the public policy school of #31. My GRE score was a big mark against me, but my recommendations were excellent and my essay was a thorough and well-thought out explanation of a couple of poor grades (math and one horrible semester of Italian which left me with a few choice curse words as the only think I remember) and what I wanted to do with an MPP degree.
I'm nothing if not tenacious so at some point in the future I'll apply to #31 again. Maybe when I come back to the states or maybe in a couple of years but I'm going to get in. If nothing else than to prove I can.
First hurdle: that damn quant section.
The world rankings for universities can be found here: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/hybrid.asp?typeCode=438
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