Should I retake the GRE for a clinical psychology PhD?

[Na'ama]

Hey,

 

I took my GRE yesterday and got 159V and 161Q. While this could possibly work for most PhD programs, a weird scenario occurred in which the Prof. that answered my mails were only from 1st tier U (UCLA, Harvard etc.). The median V in UCLA is 166, and the median Q is 162. If I have an MA with plenty of research experience, but no publications or posters, do I have a chance? Or should I retake the GRE?

** I'm an International student, so odds are I can improve my Q but not my V.

 

Thanks!

[peachypie]

Am I understanding that you are planning on only applying to the places that you have has response from professors from?  I still would encourage you to apply to programs that have a good fit that you are interested in, even if a prof has not answered you back.  I am not sure when your deadlines are but in october now you are beginning to get into the territory that there isn't TOO much time to study for GRE improvement and take the test.  i would take it again only if you felt that in the time you have remaining you would have a pretty good chance of increasing the scores significantly.  Your scores are not terrible, but not amazing.  If you do not have a lot of time to prepare or do not believe you can do much now to improve then I'd focus on writing really good SOPs and do that.  Also do not limit your pool of schools and try to cover a variety of tiers that have good fits regardless.  You could put all your eggs in one basket even with better GRE scores and still not be guaranteed anything.  Best of luck.

[Na'ama]

Thanks! I appreciate your help.

[EastCoasting]

From Israel? Either way, to me the lack of publications or presentation is the most disconcering. Could you start writing a manuscript, so that you could at least describe an article you have in preparation? Did you communicate this shortcoming to the profs that have expressed interest? Also, I'm not in clinical do I don't know if this make a difference, but of you have a lot of clinical experience because of your masters that could help too.

Since English is your second language (?) I think your GRES would be fine.