This is really late, but I thought I'd copy and put in my stats too.. I recently finished my applications but am starting to think about them again in terms of interviews and such for some reason.

Program: Organizational Behavior

Age: 23

Sex: Female

Nationality: US citizen

GRE: 660V (94%), 770Q (88%), 4.5 AWA (58%).
Not the best, but I took it awhile ago and I don't want to study again.. plus I think as long as your credentials are strong, GRE shouldn't set you back?

Undergrad: Psychology with minor in mathematics from good state school, 3.8 (overall); honors and cum laude

Grad: None

Work experience: some experience but not so relevant.

Teaching experience: none really unless being a volunteer tutor and mentor count?

Research experience: honors thesis (on a completely unrelated topic ha, with publication coming out near the end of the year/beginning of next year in a psych journal), random undergraduate research assistant positions, and research lab manager (for again, about 2 years by the time I enter)

LOR: 2 strong ones from my honors thesis advisor (psych prof) from undergrad and my current boss (psych assoc prof). 3rd one from my last boss (famous psych prof, but not really research related so probably not as strong)

Research interests: emotions in the workplace, and also person perception (how you perceive others, how others perceive you, and the implications of that research).

Schools in consideration: For OB schools, Uchicago, Northwestern, and Stanford. Was considering HBS, but decided against it because no faculty really matched my interests. I'm applying to about 6 social psych programs as well.

Hope that helps! I'm a bit anxious but surprisingly more relaxed than I thought I'd be. I think I've adopted more of a que sera sera attitude about this whole process heh. We'll see what happens!

I'm convinced more and more that strong letters of rec, especially from those well-connected in academia are at least one of the best things you can have as an applicant! I'm sure you'll get interviews/acceptances from a lot of places then.. good luck!

I myself am looking for an admission in 2009 PhD application. I agree on your point. LORs and SOP are the critical parts of the application once you CAN pass the initial screen which I guess is mostly dependent upon your GMAT and GPA. I graduated from top 10 MBA and had a good length of job experience (not quite in research though) and am currently attending school for my second Masters' degree. I succeeded in securing one from my current school and another one from the MBA school. Well...I hope those two work well for me nad DO hope that I pass the initial screen (my GMAT is close to yours but have relatively weak GPA )
Do we have any idea on how they do the initial screen?

I agree.. it can vary by school and it can also vary depending on what field you want to go into. For instance, quant would be more important in the more math-based fields like Finance/Accounting I'm assuming.

I think that as long as you can "make up" for a poorer GPA and explain perhaps why your GPA may be lower, then you still have a good shot