I've only just discovered this site and wanted to share my experience. I wish I had found this forum sooner!
School: State School
4th year student (graduating in 2014) majoring in Biology (Honors), Public Health, General Science, and minoring in Math
GPA: 3.74
URM: first gen college student, low income, disability
LOR: 3 professors, assuming they were good
Research: Steady research since 2010, Bridges to the Baccalaureate Program, McNair Scholars Program, 4 different labs, 1 paper published, 1 in review, 5 conferences, a couple of small grants
Other activities: TA for Calculus I, brought in and mentored several students in the lab, learning Perl to branch out into Bioinformatics
Applied to:
Virginia Tech REU (rejected)
Broad Inst SRPG (rejected)
Sinai SURP (rejected)
Sloan-Kettering SURP (rejected)
U of Wash Amgen (rejected)
U of Wash SURP (rejected)
WashU USP (accepted)
I applied for these 1-2 weeks before the deadlines. Now that it's over, I realize my personal statement is subpar and needs to be overhauled. The only thing that saved me was that WashU required a phone interview so I could present myself better.