GRE Scores for Education Programs

Each year more and more educators decide to bolster their credentials and expand their teaching reach. For many primary and secondary schools, a masters degree is already a requirement for the job. And naturally deep down all educators (myself humbly included on that list) want to change the face of education in some form or another. Naturally to get into these programs, you’ve almost always got to take the GRE. So what score will you need to get in?

First let’s look at the intended majors.

Education GRE Scores by Intended Major

Intended Major	Verbal	Math	AWA
All Education	151	148	3.9
Administration	150	149	3.8
Curriculum and Instruction	150	149	3.8
Early Childhood	148	146	3.7
Elementary	150	147	3.8
Evaluation and Research	150	148	3.9
Higher	152	149	4.1
Secondary	154	151	4.1
Special	149	146	3.8
Student Counseling and Personnel Services	149	146	3.8

The scores above are intended majors. What does “intended” major mean? It simply means that that these are the average scores of people planning on applying to graduate school in a specific major.

Average GRE Scores for education – accepted and aspiring

The US News and World Report is kind enough to produce data on the top graduate programs in education. I’ve culled the PhD score data from the report and reproduced it below in an easy-to-read format.

Accepted and Intended	Avg Verbal Score	Percentile Rank	Avg Math Score	Percentile Rank
Top 10 Education	160	83	154	88
#11-25 Education	157	73	153	87
#26-50 Education	156	69	152	86
#51-100 Education	155	65	150	84
Top 100 Education	156	69	151	86
Intended Applicants	151	50	148	79
ALL GRE test takers	150.8	50	151.4	50

Naturally, for masters programs, the scores are a point or two lower in each section. 

So what is a good GRE score for education?

As expected, if you’re aiming for an upper tier education program, a good GRE score for you is going to be different than if your desired program just squeaked into the top 100. For the top schools, your verbal reasoning score, especially, would need to be 9 points about the typical education aspirant in order meet the average intake for a top 10 program. So if you're considering, say, Princeton, Yale, or NYU, make sure you’ve got the right scores to make the cut. Also, don’t forget that the GRE isn't the only factor considered when assessing your application. There’s a lot to be considered and so even if you have an average or above average score for your desired program, that does not guarantee admission!