Can We Skip the GRE Subject Test If It’s Too Expensive?

Dear Dora,

Is it appropriate to contact a school and ask them (delicately) how much one of their criteria really matters?  More specifically, I’m grappling with the GRE subject test.  I’m working as a lab tech right now for a very miserly boss and coming up with another $150 on top of the many hundreds of dollars in application fees I’m going to have to pay is not going to be easy.  I don’t want to lose out on one of my top choices because I couldn’t come up with the money for some silly test but at the same time it’s hard to justify the cost when I know I have other significant expenses coming.  What should I do?

– Grant, Lab Tech

.

Dear Grant,

As a former graduate student, I understand your financial concerns. The application fees for graduate schools are high, especially when you need to apply to several schools. In spite of this financial burden, I don’t recommend delaying the GRE or inquiring about its importance. If a school requires a subject GRE, then (unfortunately) they expect their applicants to come up with the cost somehow.

If you call the school, you will most likely be connected with the administration office, which is responsible for processing applications. They are usually not the people who decide which candidates to accept, however. Those decisions are usually up to the faculty members, who are too busy to answer questions about application packages. Therefore, the administration office will probably not be able to give you a good answer about how much the subject GRE matters.

If you are applying to one of the top schools, then you want to make your application package as outstanding as possible. A candidate with a high score on a subject GRE is more likely to be accepted, than one who only has a general GRE test score. On a more positive note, the subject GRE score can be sent to all the schools you apply to. In addition, your scores are probably valid for more than one year, so if you decide to reapply in the future after you have had more job experience, you can resend you test scores without having to pay for the tests again.

.

Dora Farkas, Ph.D. is the author “The Smart Way to Your Ph.D.:200 Secrets from 100 Graduates,” and the founder of PhDNet, an online community for graduate students and PhDs. You will find links to her book, monthly newsletters, and discussion board on her site. Send your questions to [email protected] and keep an eye out for them in an upcoming issue!

Stay tuned for the next Dear Dora in two weeks!  In the meantime, check a few of Dora’s recent posts:

• The Ethics of Mooching
• Stuck Sharing a Project with a Lazy Labmate?
• Repetitive Strain Injury: The Hidden Lab Hazard
• Take My Figure Off Your Poster…Or Else.
• How to Tell on Someone Like an Adult
• Who Opened the Thiols? Oh- That’s Your Breath?!
• Reviewing Papers from Your Past: Is It Legal?
  
• Is It 2-Hour or 2-Week Notice? Telling the Boss You’re Leaving
• My Boss Treats Me Like Rodney Dangerfield – No Respect.
• So You’re Saying 50 is Too Many?
• The Job Hunt: Move with My Spouse or Chase a Paper
• Is Joining Two Labs Twice the Fun?
• Am I Stuck with this Boring Project?
• Just Two Weeks to Study for My Qualifying Exam?!

Submit your questions to Dora at [email protected], or use the comment box below!