I'm terrible at math: Am I doomed to bomb the GRE and go to a 3rd tier grad school?

Hi Fluther,

I’m a college senior in my last semester of undergrad ,which means I’ve been thinking a lot about what I’m going to do in the upcoming months/years after I graduate. Like many students, I’ll be taking the GRE to prepare for the potential of pursuing graduate studies.

I’m a state school student, majoring in Sociology with an overall GPA of 3.58. (Hoping to pull it up to at least a 3.66 by the end of the term) I’m in the National Sociological Honor Society and just completed a prestigious internship at an NYC Public Relations/Marketing firm. (And I got a post graduation job offer, too!)

If I could pick my ideal after-college scenario it would be as follows: Work at my boss’ PR firm to support myself/gain a few years of work experience. Then, I would like to go to Columbia University and get my masters in strategic communications.

Of course to attend Columbia as a state school student especially, I’ll have to blow the GRE out of the water. The writing/verbal will be a cakewalk but the math is going to kill me.

This is kind of embarrassing for me because to be honest, I never really was able to grasp even basic math as a child. It was always a bone of contention between myself, my parents and my teachers and because of it, I didn’t perform well academically until college where I could avoid. I managed to get a ‘B’ in statistics only because I had a crush on the professor and the material seemed more intuitive to me.

Now I feel as if my avoidance of math is coming back to haunt me and very well could ruin my (already iffy) chances of attending my dream school. More embarrassing yet is that some of the BASIC math even scares me. I even use a calculator to make change and determine tips when eating out! I’ve always been really embarrassed about this so I’ve always avoided talking about it to others lest they think I’m not very bright.

I’m just really hoping that something as simple as basic math isn’t going to turn into my Achilles Heel in determining my entire future. :(