GRE Quant Scores at the Top 25 Engineering Schools
Engineering is a math-heavy discipline. Unsurprisingly, high GRE Quant scores abound among Engineering grad students. Take a look at the scores for Engineering programs ranked in the top 25 in the latest U.S. News Best Grad Schools.
US News ranks schools by general area of study as well by specialty. (Read 5 Fast Facts about the US News Grad School Rankings.) Here, the area of study is Engineering and the specialties include fields like Civil, Chemical, and Mechanical Engineering.
US News gives the average GRE Quant score for Master’s and Ph.D students at each Engineering school. Among the top 25, the individual school averages range from 163 to 168, with an overall mean of 165. For comparison, the average Quant score among test takers intending to study Engineering is 159, according to ETS.
| Average | Range |
|---|---|
| 165 | 163—168 |
The average for the top 25 schools in each specialty is typically 165. However, some programs report a mean Quant score that is below average for aspiring Engineering grads, based on the mean of 159 that ETS reports for that group.
| Specialty | Average | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Aerospace / Aeronautical / Astronautical | 165 | 162—169 |
| Biological / Agricultural † | 163 | 158—166 |
| Biomedical / Bioengineering | 165 | 163—168 |
| Chemical | 165 | 162—169 |
| Civil | 165 | 163—169 |
| Computer | 165 | 163—168 |
| Electrical / Electronic / Communications | 165 | 163—168 |
| Environmental / Environmental Health | 165 | 160—169 |
| Industrial / Manufacturing / Systems † | 164 | 162—167 |
| Materials | 165 | 163—169 |
| Mechanical | 165 | 163—169 |
| Nuclear ‡ | 164 | 157—167 |
| Petroleum ‡ | 163 | 157—167 |
† Scores reported for only 24 of 25 schools.
‡ Rankings published for fewer than 25 schools—19 for Nuclear and 14 for Petroleum.
ETS publishes the average scores for intended majors in several of the most popular Engineering specialties. Here’s a side-by-side comparison of the averages from ETS and the ones from US News.
Students at Top 25 Schools vs. Test Takers Intending to Major
| Specialty | Students at Top 25 | Test Takers |
|---|---|---|
| Chemical | 165 | 161 |
| Civil | 165 | 158 |
| Electrical / Electronic / Communications | 165 | 159 |
| Industrial / Manufacturing / Systems | 164 | 160 |
| Materials | 165 | 162 |
| Mechanical | 165 | 159 |
Overall, students who get into a top-ranked Engineering program tend to score in the mid-160s. For highly popular programs like Civil and Mechanical Engineering, outscoring the average Engineering applicant by 10 points (to earn a near-perfect 169) isn’t unusual among those admitted to the best schools. So if you’re aiming high, make sure you study hard!
Photo: “Tech Tower” by Brooke Novak.
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