GRE and graduate school...

[lonestar]

For those of you who have already done the grad school applications process, which is more important to admissions offices - GRE raw scores or percentile rank? I am taking the test in October and am studying for it right now. I am not sure I want to go to graduate school yet, but I figured I would take the test now so that if I do chose to go that route I have it over with. I have some competitive and some not-so-competitive programs in mind and a decent but not stellar GPA. If I have a score that far exceeds the school's published "benchmarks" but not so hot on the percentile rank (say in the 80% area), will that kill my app?

[Winter Storm]

No idea. Never took GREs.

[SpaceMonkey]

Like the SAT for undergrad, most graduate schools use the GRE to initially weed out whole swathes of potential applicants. After that, it's down to your undergrad grades, the essay, your seeming "fit," etc. If your GRE score is above their self-described "benchmarks," then you're fine. It is unlikely to play a significant role in their decision process after that.

[RaeRae]

I don't know the answer to your question, but I wouldn't worry about it. GRE scores don't matter too much, unless you do absolutely horrible.

I didn't do very well on mine, I got 1080 on math+verbal but a 5.5 on the essay, and I got offers at 2 schools for full tuition waiver and assistantships with stipends and another offer for partial tuition with stipend at a different school. Needless to say, I took one of the full rides.

They don't care how you did on some random test, what matters is your gpa, reccommendations, and related experience to the field you're in.