I thought I would expand on my comments the other day about not retaking the GRE exam. The decision has nothing to with allegations of racial and gender bias (as I am white and male), but I can see how such a test can deter "otherwise qualified" students (as I know I was scared witless of taking it).

I was originally planning to take the test early this month before they begin implement the newly formatted test later this year (I'd got to involuntarily preview it during my session). Early January would give my time to re-study for the exam and hopefully get an updated score sent out in time for application deadlines, but then found out that admissions vary widely in how much they weigh the particular scoressections.

But then I remembered how I was forced to wait outside for 3 hours because ETS fucked up and the administrator and everyone I was told to talk to decided it must somehow have to be MY fault I wasn't registered (you know how corporations are incapable of screwing up). Not only that, but I continued having problems re-registering for my test ("sorry, our servers are working fine, the problem must be on your end.").

ETS claims that their test scores are "accurate predictions of future achievements," but I predict doing great things despite an average score. Like the report I linked to earlier said: "Test scores do not equal merit."