169Q/ 161V/ 4AWA Good Enough for HCI Grad Schools?

[ashhhh]

Took the GRE two weeks ago and got the scores (Q169/V161/AW4.0). I'm a non-native English speaker. 

I think I could probably improve my AWA to 4.5 with enough practices, yet I doubt I could reach the same QV scores again (during mock exams my average is around 323).

Just curious if this score is good & safe enough for applying HCI master programs, or is it worth it to retake the test simply for AWA's sake?

 

Other background info:

• Foreign Languages and Literatures Major - 3.96/4.3 or around 3.7/4.0 GPA
• 2 years working experiences in digital advertising agency as project planner / product marketer 
• Currently working on UX side projects as I have relatively few experiences in the field
• I have okay relationships with my professors and boss (I think lol)
• I am currently researching programs I am interested in and their average/required scores; Sadly, a lot of schools do not have them posted. 

Any advice would be great and would be much appreciated! Thanks!

Edited June 3, 2019 by Hsin Yi

[Ascender]

According to my knowledge, it’s fairly enough. TOEFL is more critical to non-native speaker. After your score has reached a certain level (I would say around 325), it’s no longer as important as other parts of you application. The best HCI programs like CMU-HCI, or UW-HCDE/HCID do not address too much significance on GRE, the latter two do not even require it. 

My suggestion would be to focus on other parts of the application, like portfolio or TOEFL instead. I also plan to apply for 20 fall HCI, I’ve been collecting historical applicants’ information and trying to generalize useful insights, and I could confidently say that there will be no one single component that could determine the final outcome (I know someone with 315+ admitted by CMU and someone with 330+ got rejected). So it’d better take a holistic view on the whole process and try your best to perfect each part.

Currently your GRE is good, so I think it’s time to move on.

Edited June 3, 2019 by Ascender

[ashhhh]

@Ascender Thank you so much for your reply!

That's what I was thinking too... and the top programs on my list are both UW ? Was trying to make sure that I can fully drop the subject (didn't want to take the test again duhh). 

Thank you again for the suggestion. Wish you all the best on your application!