[hprotagonist]

> Back to getting into a good graduate school, the single best way to get admitted is for a professor at the other school to be told by a professor at your school who he personally knows that you can do research;

that is 100% the correct answer. “hey alice, it’s bob. undergraduate charlie just applied to your department; he’s in my lab now and kicking ass” will trump nearly every other consideration, if alice has funding and tenure.