What Is a Good GRE Score? The Definitive Guide
/Learn what GRE score you need to become a competitive applicant for your dream graduate program
Introduction
If you’re applying for an advanced degree in a field you love, you’ve done a lot of preparation. You’ve earned good grades in college, written a stellar personal statement, and built relationships with professors who will write your letters of recommendation.
As with college admissions, part of the grad school admissions portfolio includes a less personal element: standardized testing. Many PhD programs, Master’s programs, and even law or business schools require the GRE.
While you prepare to take the test, you might wonder: how important is your GRE score compared with other application components? What is a “good” GRE score? When should you retake the GRE? How do different degree programs and disciplines perceive the GRE?
GRE section breakdown
There are three sections on the GRE:
1) Verbal Reasoning
2) Analytical Writing
3) Quantitative Reasoning.
The Verbal Reasoning (VR) and Quantitative Reasoning (QR) score range is 130-170, and Analytical Writing is scored on a scale from 0-6 (you can earn half-points as well).
Your GRE score report will show your scores in each section. It will also contextualize your score by showing which percentile your scores fall into.
For example, a Verbal Reasoning score of 152 would put you in the 50th percentile, indicating that you’ve scored above 50% of test takers nationwide (as of January 2024). Determining where you fall in the percentile distribution is one way to tell whether you’ve scored well on the GRE.
A good GRE score by percentile
Below is a table of GRE percentiles based on data from 2019-2022:
| Percentile | Verbal Reasoning | Quantitative Reasoning | Analytical Writing |
|---|---|---|---|
When comparing your scores to those of the national pool, consider a score in the 50th percentile average, a score in the 75th percentile decent, and a score in the 90th percentile or above very good.
Graduate schools will sometimes publish guidelines for a “good” score based on percentile.
For example, at the University of California-Berkeley, students admitted to the graduate programs had average scores in or above the 90th percentile for QR, in or above the 75th percentile for VR, and above a 3.5 for analytical writing. [UC Berkeley has since (as of 2021) eliminated the GRE requirement for most of its graduate programs.]
Students admitted to graduate programs in Statistics at the University of Chicago typically score above the 90th percentile in QR, with the VR score being less critical for a mathematical discipline.
Of course, a score in the 80th percentile in Verbal likely won’t cut it to get into an English Ph.D. program at Berkeley, though it may be acceptable to study engineering. So those numbers don’t help much except to tell you that a “good” GRE score is well above average.
So, defining a “good” GRE score often depends more on your specific goals: which degree you’re pursuing, in what field, and at what institution.
A good GRE score by discipline
Good GRE scores vary across disciplines. If you’re planning to enter a STEM field, you’ll need high QR scores; if you’re planning to enter a program for social sciences or humanities, you’ll need high VR scores. Because graduate school is more specialized than college, having high scores in your area of interest is most important.
According to ETS data from 2019-2022, the mean VR score of students intending to earn graduate degrees in engineering was 151; their mean QR score, by contrast, was 160. Among those planning to major in arts and humanities, the mean VR score was 157, and the mean QR score was 151.
You can view the entire data set, which includes breakdowns of each broad category, here.
What’s a good GRE score for Ph.D. programs?
Ph.D. programs are long and rigorous and are the gateway to a life of college teaching and research. Cohorts tend to be small, and programs tend to be funded. This means Ph.D. admissions can be more competitive than admissions for master’s degrees, which are generally shorter and not fully funded, and prepare their graduates to re-enter the workforce with new skills.
Some Ph.D. programs have minimum score requirements or unofficial suggestions about how successful applicants should score on the GRE. Again, these vary by discipline and institution.
At elite institutions—and top departments within those institutions—admitted students often score well above the 75th percentile.
At Harvard, students admitted to the Economics Ph.D. (ranked #1 in the field by U.S. News & World Report in 2022) typically score in the 97th percentile or higher on the GRE.
For Harvard’s Ph.D program in Health Policy (ranked #1 in 2020) successful applicants usually score in the 80th percentile or higher.
In the Political Science PhD at Duke (ranked #7 in 2017), the average scores of admitted students in 2023-2024 are 162 for VR and 162 for QR (i.e. above the 90th percentile).
At the University of Michigan—Ann Arbor’s Department of Psychology (ranked #3), students scored, on average, 160 in VR and 159 in QR.
The takeaway: if you plan to pursue doctoral studies at the top of your field, you should aim for GRE scores in the 80th percentile or above, especially in your area of specialization.
Still, there are many Ph.D. programs with lower GRE score guidelines. For example, in the Brandeis English Ph.D. program (ranked #47), there is significant variation in the GRE scores of admitted students—though a score below the 60th percentile will likely disadvantage an applicant.
In the Ohio State Department of Molecular Genetics (ranked #39 in Biological Sciences), successful students scored similarly above the 60th percentile.
In addition, many Ph.D. programs have made GRE scores optional or don’t accept them. This is true, for example, in Yale’s Department of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, the Stanford English Ph.D., the Ph.D. in History at Columbia, and more programs across the country.
If you’re applying to Ph.D. programs and have a lower GRE score but excellent academic credentials, your score might not be an important component of your application.
What’s a good GRE score for Master’s programs?
As with Ph.D. admissions, there’s variation by discipline and institution regarding a good score for master’s degree admissions. However, typical master’s GRE scores are usually lower than for PhD admissions.
For example, successful master’s degree applicants for Harvard’s School of Public Health (ranked #2) typically score in the 55th percentile or higher in QR. At the University of Chicago’s M.A. in Social Sciences, applicants score above 155 VR and 154 QR.
Duke’s graduate engineering program is ranked #4 nationally. Successful applicants for their master’s in biomedical engineering typically have QR scores of 166 and VR scores of 154—these scores are only slightly lower than the scores of admitted Ph.D. candidates.
Average GRE scores are lower among admitted master’s students than among Ph.D. admits. However, this isn’t always the case, and in many programs, the range still remains high.
For some specialized degrees, like many Master’s in Fine Arts programs, you won’t need a GRE score.
The takeaway: If you’re applying to master’s programs—especially highly ranked ones—it makes sense to aim for a GRE score in the 60th percentile or higher.
When should I retake the GRE?
If you’ve scored in the 60th percentile or below on the test, retaking the GRE is probably a good idea. ETS also provides a Score Select option for applicants to send only their best scores to the institution of their choice—so besides cost, there’s not necessarily a penalty for retaking the test.
It might also be worth considering which institutions don’t require the GRE, especially if you have a high undergraduate GPA and good letters of recommendation.
Final thoughts
In general, most top and mid-tier master’s and Ph.D. programs require GRE scores in at least the top 50th percentile of the national distribution.
If you wish to study at the most selective institutions in highly ranked departments, your scores should be in the 80th or 90th percentile.
However, it’s important to remember that graduate school admissions are meant to determine if you’ll be an excellent contributor to your specific field. There are always candidates who have scores significantly lower than the published averages. What’s most important, as always, is how the score fits into your whole application. The best score helps you work towards your academic and professional goals.
