International student competitiveness

[deadinside]

Hello everyone

As I've posted before in this topic, I'm a chilean MA (sociology) and History (BA) prepairing for the incoming application process.

My background can be resumed in the following:

- 1 peer review publication (South American Journal) and 2 more currently under review (one being a personal paper and the other done collectively)

- 1 year experience working as a RA in a well known Chilean social science research center

- 3 more publication in chilean academic-ish newspaper

- Knowledge in research softwares (Atlas.ti and RStudio)

However, my concerns begin when it comes to standarized tests. Since I'm an international applicant I have to take both TOEFL and GRE (altough in some universities GRE is not being required). In ther former, I scored 93 (26 Listening, 26 Reading, 23 Writing and 18 Speaking) and underperformed in speaking because my dog started to bark when I had to record my answer in that section. In the latter I'm scoring between 155Q and 156V in the practice test I've done.

BTW: I'm applying to really competitives universities. For instance: UMich-Ann Arbor, UW-Madison, NYU, Brown, UC San Diego.

My first question is, do u think I should retake the test? I contacted a professor from one of the universities mentioned  above concerned about the TOEFL score, because the recommendation they have on their website is that you apply with 100 or more. His reply was literally: "90th is fine, don't worry about  it. Good luck with the application. This will not affect your application one way or another."

My second one is, are those scores enough for an international student?

Thank you very much and good luck to everyone

[lkaitlyn]

I'm not sure about TOEFL since I'm not an international student, though I will say that failing to make minimum cutoffs given for any test runs the risk of your app being tossed before it's even read. If they say 100 is the minimum, I'd retake. (Schools claim they don't screen like that but many do use scores as an initial tool to cut down on the number of apps they have to read.)

As for GRE, its role in admissions, especially for international students, is really murky to me right now given the pandemic. The other parts of your app are more important, but if you think you have 160+ in you in either category without it taking time away from working on your personal statements, you might as well retake. Your current scores are below the ideal GRE scores for many of the schools on your list. However, if your choice is between spending hours studying more for the GRE or spending hours on your personal statement, do the personal statement every time.