It's a little brutal, but true that it also depends on what institution you got that 3.5/4 GPA from. Since my first time around, I have learned several important things (perhaps the most important was how to do a SOP), including the sad fact that your background matters. A lot. I am fairly certain that, without my MA from a significantly more prestigious institution, I may never have been accepted to a PhD program. The three strikes I had against me? 1) generic undergraduate institution, 2) didn't major in Anthropology in undergrad (though I did minor in Archaeology), and 3) imperfect academic record (I took some time off in the middle of my undergrad career). I think that these are three generalizable issues that many people face (I knew dozens of people with similar issues in my MA program).
That said, don't give up hope. It is 99% the luck of the draw, in the end.
