low GRE high hopes

[graduator]

ok, im thinking of

Columbia MARSEA or East Asian studies Liberal Arts (no GRE required)

Columbia Strategic Communication

NYU Steinhardt Media

NYU SCPS Marketing

JHU-Nanjing SAIS program

all Masters programs

my GRE

V420

Q610

Analytical 5

shud I retake or just apply. my resume and international background is quite solid tho. got 2 BA degrees as well and am not US student.

any takes?

THANK YOU

Edited January 18, 2010 by graduator

[katalytik]

Without a doubt you need to take it over if those are your schools that you want to be at.

[JustChill]

Definitely retake. Those scores won't get your application past the administrator's desk.

[graduator]

thanks for the replies. i thought so..

what wud be a good score for these unis, around 1200 overall?

the 5 analytical is good tho

thanks

[NeuroNerd86]

definitely consider retaking it. One good thing about the GRE is that it's the part of your application that you can improve in a relatively short period of time (unlike GPA, research exp, etc). I guess it's also one of the reasons why schools use it as an immediate cutoff factor. I don't know how it goes for the programs you are interested in, but 1200 is usually a score that would keep you out of "rejected due to low GRE pile".

[katalytik]

thanks for the replies. i thought so..

what wud be a good score for these unis, around 1200 overall?

the 5 analytical is good tho

thanks

the higher the better, but i would try to break 1300

[focused]

I would shoot for over 1400 to be very competitive. Spend time studying for this test. Do not underestimate how much weight your scores may carry.

Agreed. I'm not in your field, but the admitted students in the top social science schools often break 1400. Surely, some of them score below this, but they likely have other elements to balance it out (very high GPA, exceptional research experience, potentially publications, etc). You mentioned the rest of your application is solid, but it's hard to know what that really means since definitions of "solid" can vary quite a bit. In any case, I think trying to exceed the 1400 mark is good advice.