Significance of GRE scores?

[Gabert26]

I’m applying for LMHC at UCF. It’s one of the only schools I see in Florida that requires a GRE score and I just was wondering the significance of it. They say a 290 is the minimum for an interview, but is it as significant as SAT for college? I know I will get around a 300-305 as that’s my practice test scores with around a 140 in quant and 165 in verbal. The main thing for me is that they say you need 80 hours of studying to raise your score 5 points and my application needs to be in by next month.

Should I be putting effort in to try to raise the GRE score even higher or am I safe sitting there? I have a 3.6 GPA, been working in mental health for 2 years as a mental health tech and RBT, will be a licensed Brian injury specialist next month as well. Its hard to find stuff about the GRE for MHC as not many colleges ask for it. Any advice on if my application is strong enough or I need to work on the GRE?

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[AcronymAllergy]

I would say your best bet would be to look at the average scores of matriculated students in the program, if those data are available. That should give you a reasonable score for which to aim.

The importance of the score/how much weight it's given is probably going to vary by program. It was fairly heavily-weighted back when I was applying for doctoral programs, but that was over a decade ago and things have very likely changed since then (especially in light of COVID and with the number of programs no longer requiring the test).

I would assume that if your other metrics (e.g., GPA) are lower than the average incoming student for the program, that will make it more likely you'll need to be above average in other areas. The converse may also be true (e.g., if your GPA is well above the average student's, your GRE score may not need to be quite as high).

 

[R. Matey]

Also check the ETS tables for averages in mental health counseling. I can't imagine those scores would make you ineligible for a counseling master's degree, but you should find out what the averages for the program are.