currentgrad

The overall advice is right, especially since you are likely to change topics. But it is completely untrue that either of those departments--or any department--gets 1000 applicants a year. At my top-5 program we review about 200-250 a year. Not that it's a cakewalk to get in, but you don't have 1,000 people a year trying to be Yale sociology grad students.

GRE scores are a tricky tool to assess your standing. I scored in the 81st percentile in verbal and 61st percentile in quant, and the 54th percentile in writing (and am a US-born, white male, to boot), and I am attending a top 5. Every program treats the GRE differently, and sometimes programs will change from one year to the next. But don't get too hung up on "low" GRE scores; your success in all of the other stuff is probably a better predictor of your chances.

People from the top programs read these threads, mind numbingly dumb as they can get. It's not hard to figure out who you are when we read your applications. Keep that in mind, especially if you are just applying and think you have a clue what you are talking about (in other words, stop the broad sweeping generalizations about the discipline because it's going to affect your top 5 program admission).