You are absolutely right, belowthree. The way I see it is that your raw stats are what "put your foot in the door", but in the end it's your personality, your ability, your passion for your chosen field that gets you in. The truth is, this is a rough year for admissions, and to some degree it's a matter of luck and being in the right place at the right time. It just so happens that the majority of my potential advisers can't take another student this year because their departments are only giving aid offers to people entering small/newly started labs. It just stinks to get a slough of emails that read "you were easily my strongest applicant, but I just don't have funding for you." Ouch. So I think I'll end up at a school with much less clout, but with plenty of money to get me through and very bright, enthusiastic profs. There really isn't a magic formula for getting into grad school (well, at least in the sciences, maybe in other disciplines).