Grad School and the GRE

I work at the University of Minnesota. One of the key benefits that the U offers employees is free tuition. This isn't free classes, really, because there's usually a couple hundred bucks of fees, and generally a textbook or two, to pay for, but the tuition itself is indeed free. One could contend that there's also an opportunity cost to this, since the U (at least the College of Liberal Arts tends to pay below-market wages for IT staff, but that's a separate issue. Given that it's part of the benefits package, it'd be silly not to take advantage of it, and in fact the opportunity to take classes is one of the reasons I wanted to come work for the U.

Anyway, I'm applying to the master's program at the Computer Science department. There are three different master's degrees offered; only one of which is non-terminal, and that's the one I'm applying for. Part of the application process for this degree is taking the GRE. The GRE isn't required for the two terminal masters degree programs, but, well, I guess I'm a glutton for punishment. And I did OK on the PSAT and the SAT, well enough to qualify for a national merit scholarship from Macalester back in the day. So, standardized tests weren't that scary twenty years ago, but it's been a long time.

So, I took the GRE on Feb 10th. With a fever of 102. It turns out that you can't reschedule an appointment less than 3 days before the day of the test, so I was kind of stuck. I figured, if the scores suck because I'm sick, I'll take it again in a month. Early this week, I got the score report.

Analytical Writing: 5.5
Quantitative: 740
Verbal: 670

Cool. Not stellar, actually, but not that bad. It at least puts me in the upper 50% of the total graduate school student body, assuming 2005-2006 scores are comparable to 2006-2007. So, at any rate, I'm happy I don't have to take it again after all, despite the fever.