Get Accepted Quickly Into a PhD Program in the Sciences

Updated 11/22/2014, with latest information from THIS recruitment season. As a former program manager, I can tell you how to do it in a few, easy steps by sharing the secrets only application reviewers know. To name a few:
1. Your application is reviewed by a real person who has a voice in the selection process the moment it is submitted. The department does not wait until the application deadline, so neither should you.
2. Programs do NOT want official transcripts sent to them during the application process.
3. Forget about the notion that the highest GPA and the highest GRE scorers will fill all the slots.
4. If you take the GRE more than once, your highest scores from each section of each test are used.
5. The single most important factor in getting accepted? Your ability to intelligibly discuss your research.
6. Your application is a snapshot in time. It will never update, no matter what you add later.
7. One of the ways the federal government wants their money spent is on underrepresented minorities.
8. Write intelligibly and excitedly about your research focus.
9. Marginal and mediocre applicants can be recommended for offers even when they do not have the 3.0 GPA, GRE scores in the 50th percentile or even speak English well.
10. If all things are equal, the tiebreaker is the letters of recommendation from people who can attest to the quality of your research.