Colorado Technical University

How much do GRE scores matter with publications?

I'll be applying to doctoral programs this fall. I'm doing my undergraduate degree at an okay institution (tier 3, but I went there because there was faculty I wanted to do research with.) I have a 3.88 GPA, double major in computer science and psychology, honors everything, graduating a year early, and have worked on 10 separate research projects, 4 of which I designed myself. I also have a first-author journal paper, 2 co-author journal papers, 2 first-author conference papers, 3 co-authored conference papers, and 6 first-author poster papers. I've also served on organizing committees for academic conferences, been asked to peer-review papers, have presented talks at academic conferences, written small grants which were accepted, and have won multiple student research competition awards. However, despite all of this, my ability to do middle school math is embarrassing. I haven't taken the GREs yet, but on my practices, I've scored around a 450. I'm confident about my ability to do well on the verbal and writing portions, but am worried about my quantitative score. I believe my research background indicates that I'm clearly capable of doing independent research, but I'm worried that the admissions committee won't even open up my CV because they'll only see a moderately low GRE score from a non-prestigious university. Obviously, the clear answer is "okay, so study" which I am currently doing, but I want to know how much the scores matter. Should I be worried some of the top-tier universities I'm applying to won't even realize I'm so involved in research? Also, forgot to mention... I'll be applying to PhD programs in psychology and human-computer interaction, so I'm hoping there'll be less of an emphasis to have a *high* quantitative score. The journals / conferences that I've included in the count listed here have all been "real" conferences (not ones designed for undergrads.) Many have been in computer science, and include IEEE VR and ACM CHI, both of which are fairly prestigious. The journal, TVCG, Transactions in Visualization and Computer Graphics, is also quite prestigious.

Public Comments

1. If you are publishing in A-level journals as an undergrad the GRE will just be a formality. If you are publishing in low level journals with other undergrads and presenting at conferences that invite majority college kids, then you will be in the same boat as many of the other applicants, which means your GRE will be somewhat important, just like the rest of your application.
2. To give you confidence, I did horrible on math in the practice tests, but ended up getting a better math than verbal score when it counted. Let me tell you there were nights after taking the practice tests when I was freaking out but in the end it all worked out. Sorry I don't know the answer to the question, but I just wanted to make you feel better and let you know my experience.