Ah, the dream of Harvard. Each year, thousands of graduate school hopefuls seal their dream in an application envelope to have it exchanged for a thin, hope-crushing letter of rejection from the mysterious admissions committee–or that longed-for fat envelope!
There are certainly a lot of factors in play when applying to graduate school, but the GRE ranks as one of the more important ones. But what GRE score do you need for Harvard? Well, that’s tough nut to crack. Let’s start with the ones we know for certain.
Average Harvard GRE scores for Engineering and Education
US News & World Report releases GRE data for only two programs annually: Education and Engineering. So if you’re planning on pursuing one of those programs, congrats! Here’s the US News & World Report data on the engineering and education for Master’s and PhD programs at Harvard:
| Program | Average Verbal | Average Quantitative |
|---|---|---|
| Engineering - Master's | 161 | 166 |
| Engineering - PhD | 161 | 167 |
| Education - Master's | 158 | 156 |
| Education - PhD | 162 | 159 |
As you can see, this table reflects the disciplinary emphasis on different sections you can expect to find across universities. With that in mind, average GRE scores for Harvard vary greatly across disciplines.
Estimating Harvard GRE scores in other disciplines
Depending on your program, Harvard GRE scores range from about 155 to 170 in both Verbal and Quant. How do we know? Based on the GRE scores that are available on US News & World Report for Education and Engineering, we’re able to extrapolate scores for different programs based on their rankings.
Below is an estimated range of scores you could expect from Harvard’s ranked programs.
| Program | US News Rank | Estimated Verbal Range | Estimated Quantitative Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Biological Sciences | 1 | 159-163 | 160-164 |
| Chemistry | 5 | 159-163 | 163-167 |
| Computer Science | 16 | 153-157 | 164-168 |
| Earth Sciences | 12 | 157-161 | 157-161 |
| Economics | 1 | 160-164 | 167-170 |
| English | 3 | 163-167 | 155-159 |
| History | 9 | 162-166 | 155-159 |
| Mathematics | 3 | 159-163 | 170 |
| Physics | 2 | 162-166 | 167-170 |
| Political Science | 2 | 163-167 | 159-163 |
| Psychology | 3 | 158-162 | 155-159 |
| Public Administration | 3 | 160-164 | 157-161 |
| Sociology | 2 | 159-163 | 156-160 |
Resources to Get the GRE Scores You’ll Need
Check out the following links for more help preparing for the GRE:
Notes about comments
Due to the overwhelming amount of comments I was getting on this post, I’ve decided to turn them off. While I’d love to give everyone some kind of hard and fast number for your chances (it’s a nerve racking, opaque experience, I know), I unfortunately can’t. This is because there are numerous factors involved in the admissions decisions and most of those factors aren’t the GRE. The best I can do is tell you below/at/above the score range, but that information you can see for yourself above. My universal recommendation is that you check where you stand compared to the tables above. Then have a look at the forums to see student experiences. Good luck! 🙂
