Background: looking at public administration/public policy programs
First question: Are GRE score cut-offs a drop dead sort of thing? For example: can a quant score below a school's cut-off (e.g. 150) be balanced out by a strong verbal/analytic score and general application or should I just not bother applying to this school because I didn't make the cut-off?
Second question: Some apps ask if I plan to retake the GRE. The honest answer is of course "it depends if I get into the programs I'm aiming for" but given a low quant score but a great verbal/analytic score, do they want to hear that I think I can do better and will retake it?
I would have retaken it the minute I found out my scores if time and money were no object but that's not the case so please don't respond with "just retake it!"
Any advice otherwise would be greatly appreciated - thanks!