http://www.llm-guide.com/board/11914 en What Chances do You think I have? - LLM GUIDE Discussion Board Sun, 05 Mar 2006 01:05:00 +0200 http://www.llm-guide.com/board/11914/last#11914 I respect your views but I have friends who went to Harvard, Stanford and Yale and I had the chance to meet professors from the admissions committee of some top schools. They were unanimous: after a certain score, TOEFL is not important. When you are short-listed to these schools, you are competing with teh very best. Great credentials, grades, rec. letters, personal statements, etc. Do you really think that b/c one candidate has a TOEFL of 290 and the other one has 280/270, this will be a factor? Please... That is also my opinion. In fact, a smart person would easily catch up with those scoring 10/15 more points in the TOEFL after some weeks of intense readings and class participation. Moreover, high TOEFL scores don't account for your ability to speak or write english in a higlhy demanding environment. I got 6.0 on essay rating but I often make mistakes when I am deeply concentrated in my writing, let alone when I am typing posts :-). The same can be said about speaking or even reading. Most of us hope to learn fast and that's all. If a guy's TOEFL score is bellow 260 or so, then the result should have a negative impact. However, as I said in my response to Roberto, I'm just speculating. But Paul's insight seems to be quite conclusive, at least in my view.