刚回给我的邮件，原文如下：
At the end of the day, we look for students who are likely to succeed in
the profession, which does not have a perfect measure in any means. All
cases are evaluated individually. You should worry less about how to
cater to the evaluators' criteria in the application package than about
your own career development. Just present everything faithfully, and
trust your evaluators in their judgment. Economics as a profession in
general has been quite successful in finding and nurturing talents. Over
the years I have not seen even one case where a student who had
difficulty in the application stage ended up being successful in the
profession.
虽然讲得很抽象，但确实是大实话，希望能给大家一点启发。

其实很多老师担心的是把你收进来后你能不能survive，如果你可以顺利毕业，能容进他们认为适合的那个圈子，你可能就被录取了。这个我老师和我聊过，她总是强调survive很重要（她在北美生活学习了10年），美国很多学校招中国学生不是完全因为数学能力好或者聪明，其实任何人都可以很聪明的。关键是中国学生的survive的能力比较强，可以晚上不睡觉复习写论文。

呵呵，不过很多情况下硬件条件还是很有用的，至少不是每个人都申请的是牛校。
谢谢楼主分享！

"Over the years I have not seen even one case where a student who had
difficulty in the application stage ended up being successful in the
profession." ... 这不至于吧...

多谢楼主分享经验……