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They actually do not meet.
They draw a circle on the ground, climb on top of their building and throw the applications in the air. All applications within the circle qualify for the next round. Then they repeat the game until the desired number of candidates has been reached.
In more traditional schools they make paper planes with the applications and the ones which fly further are selected. That's why I tried to do as much as possible online, so that my aircraft is lighter and thus flies better. This is why some people with lots of published papers get rejected if they send the papers along with their app: it just makes the plane crash.

I really liked how your post started for it is true that this forum is heavily skewed and only those aiming at the very best unis speak up. However, there is no need to be aggressive towards them; and your post gives the impression that people who get in the top 50 do so because by virtue of their birth. It helps when you come from a comfortable environment, but you still need to work your ass-off to get there eventually and that concerns only a minority of the people here. I am sure many a member applying to ivy-like unis would be able to prove that. Most of us do live in the "real" world and are equally anxious about the outcome of our applications.
Please do not turn this topic into something political. Why not simply stick to your initial intention of sharing experience?

What would be even better is an iPhone application that would gather this information for all your applications so you could check with one glance where you are everywhere in real time

What would be even better is an iPhone application that would gather this information for all your applications so you could check with one glance where you are everywhere in real time

I started this thread for a few reasons:

1. I'm tired of listening to all the hacks who stress over the decision to go to Harvard, Stanford, Rochester, or Princeton.
2. Not all of us hit the life lottery like yourselves, so we will be going to non-top 50 institutions. Which schools did you apply to and what is your background?
3. To give individuals not going to institutions in the top-50 an opportunity to speak up.

For anyone going to great institutions, I commend you, as it is truly remarkable accomplishment. However, outside of a few individuals on this board, the vast majority of you are pricks. Although, while I do think most of you are a bit on the egotistical side, and look down on people who haven't exactly been dealt a royal flush in their lives, I am thankful for your existence on Earth, because if it weren't for you, it wouldn't give the less fortunate (Those going to non-top 50's) the motivation to work their asses off.

I'll add more after I get back from a meeting...damn the "real" world.

And this input by the way is coming from a person on this forum who stood up against the claims of some people on the boards who asserted that if one did go to a top ten program, they were going to be f-ed in the job market. And Bobb is exactly right, you're going to have a tough time starting a serious and rational discussion with most people on this board when you make the disparaging comments that you do. I worked incredibly hard to get where I am.

Read the Bell Curve by Murray and Hernstein. Environment is by far a lesser factor in determining ones intelligence and success in life than is natural ability. I really don't like to get into my personal life on these boards, but reading your hasty assumption that all of us who have been admitted to top 50 programs have been "dealt a royal flush" in life really stunned me. In my adult life, I have had to work very hard to overcome depression, coming out of the closet as a gay man, and live in recovery from alcoholism (I decided to get sober 9 months ago and haven't had a drink since, this experience is largely what made me decide to shift from being a political hack to wanting to give back to others through teaching).

So please, just stop making assumptions about people and where they've come from in life. I can't speak for anyone else on this board, but I imagine I'm far from the only one who feels this way.

Cost effective my ass. It simply does not cost them anywhere near that much to send test scores. The most obvious example of the company ripping people off is the way that they deliberately send out scores as late as they possibly can, in order to get people to pay to hear their results over the phone for $12. Any fee for that is slightly ridiculous, but $12 to hear the score of a test you have paid to take, and whose results are available but not yet sent, is ridiculous and is clearly done solely for profit. I wouldn't really mind the test being monopoly controlled if they weren't getting away with ripping off thousands of people every year for the sake of a test that most admissions committees seem to consider almost useless.

If scores from different standardized tests that test English language/reading skills and aptitude can't be compared, that's because they don't really do a very good job of measuring those skills in the first place.

Nice one.
I love this post. The positive thread is supposed to make people better but it really does not because it gives you the impression that your competition is an army of 3.99 GPA -1550 GRE - 5 publications - twice-as-many-conferences - two books - purple-heart-decorated robots. At least this post humanizes the people and comforts you among peers who like are biting their nails until they bleed of anxiety.

As for me I am international with a GPA that does not convert in a very positive way into US GPA, transcripts missing well after the deadline, TOEFL missing because I took it 2 years and 2 months before the deadlines and guess what? ETS deletes the scores after two years day to day. So I have to say I re-registered for the test but only in late January for there was not any earlier date available. I spotted a blatant spelling mistake in the intro of my SoP, turns out I want to have a "carrier" instead of a career...
If I could just skip the next 4/5 weeks and get it over with.

Probably not, but at least you can make jokes about your GRE scores being really shitty...

They actually do not meet.
They draw a circle on the ground, climb on top of their building and throw the applications in the air. All applications within the circle qualify for the next round. Then they repeat the game until the desired number of candidates has been reached.
In more traditional schools they make paper planes with the applications and the ones which fly further are selected. That's why I tried to do as much as possible online, so that my aircraft is lighter and thus flies better. This is why some people with lots of published papers get rejected if they send the papers along with their app: it just makes the plane crash.