Each year, Columbia’s urban campus beckons thousands of applicants to apply to their prestigious graduate school programs. There’s more than just the allure of Manhattan’s Upper West Side; this university is one of the most well-respected in the world.
Like almost every other university in the U.S., the admissions committee uses the GRE as a means to whittle down the field to the most qualified candidates.
Of course there’s a lot more that they look at than just your GRE score, but the test has become an important indicator for admissions committees at schools like Columbia. So what do you need to get in?
Average GRE scores for Columbia – Engineering and Education
The US News & World Report provides data for only a pair of programs: notably, Engineering and Education. With that in mind, here are the average GRE scores for Engineering and Education programs at Columbia:
| Program | Average Verbal | Average Quantitative |
| Engineering - Master's | 156 | 167 |
| Engineering - PhD | 159 | 167 |
| Education - Master's | 155 | 156 |
| Education - PhD/EdD | 158 | 156 |
The Verbal Scores range from the 76th-82nd percentiles and the Quantitative in the 92nd percentile for Engineering. For a education programs, Verbal is also between the 76th-82nd percentiles and Quant is in the 59th percentile.
Estimating Columbia GRE Scores in Other Disciplines
So if you’re applying to a Columbia program other than Engineering or Education, are you just out of luck? Not at all! Based on those programs’ rankings and estimated scores, Magoosh was able to estimate Columbia GRE scores for a variety of other grad programs.
Below is an estimated range of scores you could expect from Columbia’s ranked programs.
| Program | US News Rank | Estimated Verbal Range | Estimated Quantitative Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Biological Sciences | 11 | 156-160 | 157-161 |
| Chemistry | 12 | 156-160 | 160-164 |
| Computer Science | 11 | 153-157 | 164-168 |
| Earth Sciences | 5 | 160-164 | 160-164 |
| Economics | 9 | 160-164 | 167-170 |
| English | 8 | 163-167 | 155-159 |
| Fine Arts | 8 | 159-163 | 158-162 |
| History | 5 | 162-166 | 155-159 |
| Mathematics | 7 | 159-163 | 170 |
| Physics | 9 | 162-166 | 167-170 |
| Political Science | 8 | 163-167 | 159-163 |
| Psychology | 12 | 155-159 | 152-156 |
| Public Administration | 23 | 157-161 | 154-158 |
| Social Work | 5 | 155-159 | 151-155 |
| Sociology | 11 | 156-160 | 153-157 |
To see where those scores fall, check out the GRE percentile rankings.
Resources to get the GRE scores you’ll need
Check out the following links for more help preparing for the GRE:
What We Can Take Away from Columbia’s GRE Scores
The most important thing to take away from any university’s GRE scores is how much they vary by program, and Columbia is no different. With that said, here are a few key facts:
- Columbia’s Engineering and Education program applicants had similar GRE Verbal scores. However, the Engineering students had far higher Quant scores: 167, compared to 156.
- Columbia’s highest Quant scores were found (no surprise here) in Mathematics, where average scores are estimated at around 169-170. Wow!
- Columbia’s highest Verbal scores came from English and Political Science, where students achieved scores estimated at 166-170.
