You know, a lot of people overlook their letters of rec and personal statement. Also, they overlook their application. I looked at my friend's girlfriend's application and personal statement (which she submitted already), and I found about 3 grammatical errors in her statement, and 2 words that were misspelled in her application.
I just had my interview at VCU, and one of my interviewers kept going on and on about my letters of rec and how all of my professors had so many nice things to say about my personality. Please don't take this the wrong way, I'm not trying to brag. I'm just pointing out that a lot of letters of rec can sound generic and most often are templates that professors use for their students. Just make sure that you ask people that know you well enough to give more of a detailed insight on your character.
And on the subject of generic, people need to spend more time on their personal statements. The whole "ever since my trip to (insert 3rd world country), where I taught a small child to floss correctly, I knew I wanted to become a dentist" story isn't going to cut it. You have thousands of applicants with the EXACT same stats as you who are applying for the same spots. Your personal statement is a way to make you stand out among the rest.
And then there's interviewing... I don't know much about this because I've only had one academic interview in my entire life, and that was last week at VCU. You should do what I did. I asked everyone I knew this question: "When you first met me, did I seem like a total douche bag to you?" If they hesitate, or laugh nervously before answering you (or if they say "yes"), then you should practice not being so douchey.
I'm not saying that GPA and DAT scores aren't important, because they are the most important things for an applicant. I'm just saying that they're not everything. So when you hear of people saying that they didn't get in with this awesome GPA and this amazing DAT score, don't freak out and think that you're never going to get into a school. There are a lot of other things to consider.
Oh yeah, I'm not trying to imply to anyone they they suck as a person or anything. I just think that this forum focuses too much on stats. And also, this is just my opinion. I'm not an expert on anything... except Dance Dance Revolution. Sadly, I'm pretty good at that.
