GRE writing: retake, or compensate

<p>Hey there, everybody. </p>

<p>I took my GRE, and scored fairly well on the objective portions (640 verbal, 720 quantitative); my writing score, however, was surprisingly low (3.5). Of course, most schools say that a low score can be compensated for with examples of strong writing ability, which I believe I can show through my personal statement as well as my two academic publications. </p>

<p>I'm planning to apply for PhD Musicology programs at the following institutions:</p>

<p>Harvard, Cornell, Princeton, Berkeley, Brandeis, U of Chicago, North Carolina (Chapel Hill), Illinois, Ohio State</p>

<p>My question to you is, especially in regard to the Ivy League schools on my list, should I retake for the writing portion? More specifically, do you think any of these more competitive schools would simply toss my application in view of the writing score?</p>

<p>Thanks for your advice on this one!</p>