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what field do you want to study?
i did a phd in history at the best program in the country for what i wanted to do. i didnt particularly prepare for the gre's--i tried to compensate for my dislike of simpler forms of mathematics by studying, but it didnt help.
since then--DEPENDING ON WHAT YOU WANT TO DO (i put that in caps because it is a really important caveat to be placed over what follows)--i have found out that in the humanities it's unclear how big a deal the gre tests are in graduate school admissions.
transcripts and recommendation letters matter more.
but the scores are used in ranking, which shapes financial aid levels at the point you are admitted....
generally, however, the "better" the school the less important they are.
"better" is in quotes because ususally when you go to grad school in the humanities anyway, you are not so much going to study in a program as you are to work with particular people---it isnt like being an undergraduate that way---so you typically go where the faculty that you want to work with are. given the way the academic market works, there are good people all over the place--the old days of alignment between an institution's reputation and the quality of its faculty are long gone.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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