Many posters are going to answer the wrong question here, saying, “a 1520 won’t be the reason you are denied at [named elite school].” Well, of course, in a holistic review, a test score will never be the sole reason you are denied (or accepted).
The real question is: for your specific application, with your specific academic, extracurricular and demographic profile, would a 1540+ make a difference for admission, not denial.
I don’t think anyone on here can answer that for you. I will say that I tend to look at 1560-1600 as materially stronger than 1490-1530, and, contrary to many people on here, I think that standardized tests do measure important aspects of an applicant’s ability to college-level work.
If I were targeting Rice and Columbia, yes I’d retake for a higher score unless I was very confident that my application had other special attributes like URM, legacy, athletic preference, female in hard sciences or math (biochem doesn’t count in my opinion), etc.