GRE score by intended major

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do engineers do so poorly on verbal/writing? Of course I don't expect them to do as well as humanities majors but these numbers stand out.

Non-native speakers of English.

That, and some just get STEM but not humanities. Reverse is true for English Language and Lit majors - they are strong in humanities but not math. The list makes total sense to me.

DC was at an IB magnet program. They got straight As and IBDP, I think 38 was their total score. But, they are still stronger in STEM than humanities.

SAT math 800
SAT verbal 780

IB physics, math -- 6,7 respectively
IB English, History -- 5

Unsurprisingly, they are a STEM major, but the IBDP did make them a stronger writer.

[Anonymous]

Seems ironic that "Communications and Journalism" majors score so low in Verbal and Analytical Writing, lower than Chem, Physics, and even Business. What is up with that?

Maybe the stereotype about Communication majors is true. I don't know how else to explain it.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, the communication majors stand out (not in a good way). I wonder why. Perhaps few do PhD's and more do master's degrees.

[Anonymous]

FWIW, here's the percentage scoring 4.5 or higher (the 80th percentile and up) on the Analytic Writing section for humanities and social science majors:

Philosophy 53.3%
Political Science 50.7%
Religion 49.3%
English Language and Lit 49.2%
Art History 47.3%
History 44.5%
Anthropology 36.7%
Sociology 35.1%
Psychology 31.6%
Communications and Journalism 23.7%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, the communication majors stand out (not in a good way). I wonder why. Perhaps few do PhD's and more do master's degrees.

I have nothing against journalism majors (my father was a university journalism professor). When I became a professor in a different field, I discovered that communications & journalism departments attract a lot of people who are looking to become on-air reporters, or wedding event planners, or public relations agents. All very important roles but not the most intellectually challenging professions.

[Anonymous]

A lot of philosophy, political science and history majors end up in law school where logical reasoning and analytical writing is a key skill set. Coincidentally these majors are good performers on the Analytical Writing and GRE Verbal.

[Anonymous]

* Incidentally

[Anonymous]

Why do natural science majors do well on verbal skills but engineering/computer science do poorly?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do natural science majors do well on verbal skills but engineering/computer science do poorly?

I think CS/Eng is way more math heavy than natural science majors. And this goes back to how many who are CS/Eng majors are terrible writers and communicators. Not all, but many are.

I'm married to an Engineer, and my DC is a CS/math major, but their verbal/writing scores have always been high. I will attribute that to my side of the genes because DH isn't a good writer (self proclaimed). I'm not great, but I'm a lot better than DH.

[Anonymous]

Besides math itself, the top quant performers are physics, economics and engineering. But the physics and economics have better verbal skills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do natural science majors do well on verbal skills but engineering/computer science do poorly?

I notice that math-based majors tend to be very very lonely. Math, as a major, really prefers individual study and can often feel like a solo venture (it's also why I left it for Physics). Science majors tend to rely on team efforts for everything, while math-based ones are team-based usually solely for a means to an end, not out of choice. I knew many an engineer in college who could hardly work with others but were great working solo. It's a personality component.