I'm not pretending like my GRE scores are high, but they are not below average. My GPA is a strong upward trend as well. I was simply happy to do alright on the GRE, hopefully well enough to be accepted. I am aware of the fact a low GPA is not negated by a high GRE, but it serves as an equalizer, especially if somebody majored in something easy and had a 4.0 from school with lots of grade inflation, and you were comparing them to somebody with a very low GPA, say 2.5, with a very difficult major from a school with lots of grade deflation. Lets give the 4.0 an 850 GRE and lets give the 2.5 an 1100, who would you take?
I agree with you about trying to compare GPAs - the problem is, it can be very difficult to do that. A school may be "known" as being an easy school, with easy majors, and grade inflation, and another one may be known as being difficult. (Still, in the example you gave, a 2.5 is really inexcusable... the person was in the wrong major or never should have been admitted to the school, or is smart enough but fooled around and didn't do their work... in which case the low GPA cannot be attributed to the difficulty of the program.) In any case, the fact that someone got a 4.0 at the easy school in the easy major doesn't mean that at a different school they would not also have gotten a 4.0. And they may "test poorly" (although in most cases I don't buy that claim.) So, you can't really "weight" GPAs in that way. Doing really well in a really hard program pretty much means you would have done well in any program, but doing really well in a really easy program doesn't mean you would have done poorly in a harder program. (I think probably in most cases that would be the case, but that assumption simply cannot be made by admissions committees.)
You did suggest that your GRE was "higher" - that you were in the lower GPA and higher GRE category. If you have an average score, percentile-wise, that means that half the people who took the GRE did better than you did. If you're in, say, 60th percentile, 40% of people who took the GRE did better than you did. Looked at that way, the score doesn't look very good. It's good that you don't have a below-average score, but that doesn't mean you have a good score. Combined with a low GPA and low prereq GPA, it's not painting a good picture. If you were to have a very high GPA, then I might think you must have been in a really hard major at a hard school (or just take general knowledge tests well.)
The Spanish-speaking thing... it all depends. Spanish is not in demand everywhere, even though it is a major language in the US, and where there are a lot of Spanish speakers, there tend to be a lot of bilingual people, so it's not such an unusual skill. It's one of those somewhat iffy and intangible things. I'd actually bank on the "minority" advantage more than the Spanish-speaking ability, but again, it would depend on where you were applying. Where I grew up, for instance, French would be much more in demand, but a hispanic woman would be a minority snapped up by a lot of programs.
I'm not saying you're in terrible shape - there is a wide range of selectivity in OT programs. I'm just pointing out that you're in the "higher GRE" category only if you compare yourself to people with terrible scores. I know that sounds rude, but I am just being realistic. There is a lot of rah-rah cheerleading on here, with people pouncing on "negative posters." But think about it - this forum is solely dedicated to discussing the field of OT, with a main focus on admissions issues. As such, we should be as realistic as possible or else we are doing a disservice to other posters. If you (or anyone) thinks the discussion on here is bad, you should check out the Princeton Review's law school discussion board. People are vicious. It's mostly current college students who all imagine they will get into "Top 14" law schools (seemingly random number, but the top 14 schools are the group to which applicants aspire.) They're not admitted anywhere yet, but they will rip apart posters who are going to "TTTs" (third-tier toilets, which basically means any school outside of the top 14.) There is no room for people attending schools which are generally lower-ranked but top-ranked in certain areas, like marine law, environmental law, or intellectual property law. There's no acknowledgement that people turn down higher-ranked schools so they can pay $20K per year instead of $50K per year. The people are incredibly obnoxious and they ALL think they're going to graduate and make $200K to start. I think that here, even with a couple posters people find to be harsh, the environment is MUCH more civil than on that board.
