GRE Scores for Social Science Programs

Hoping to get into a social science graduate program and looking for what GRE score you’ll be expected to have to get into your dream school? Here’s the info from ETS chart providing the average GRE scores for majors based on survey data they collect from test takers.

Program	Verbal	Math	AWA
Social Sciences	153	150	4.0
Anthropology and Archaeology	156	149	4.1
Economics	154	159	4.0
Political Science	156	151	4.2
Psychology	152	148	4.0
Sociology	152	148	4.0
Other	150	147	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.

Score range for Social Sciences Programs

Using a scale drawn from the limited score data in the US News & World Report’s report on graduate schools, here’s the range of average scores you could expect:

	Top 10		#11-50		#51-100
	Verbal	Math	Verbal	Math	Verbal	Math
Social Sciences	160-164	153-157	156-160	151-155	154-158	149-153
Anthropology and Archaeology	163-167	152-156	159-163	150-154	157-161	148-152
Economics	161-165	162-166	157-161	160-164	155-159	158-162
Political Science	163-167	154-158	159-163	152-156	157-161	150-154
Psychology	159-163	151-155	155-159	149-153	153-157	147-151
Sociology	159-163	151-155	155-159	149-153	153-157	147-151
Other	157-161	150-154	153-157	148-152	151-155	146-150

As you can see, there’s a pretty big distinction between say Economics GRE scores and Sociology GRE scores. For example, you’ll obviously be expected to have better GRE math scores for Economics (a quant heavy program) versus Political Science GRE scores in math. The Social Sciences truly span a wide swath of concentrations, and consequently you’ll need to be aware of your particular program.