How to not get "filtered out" during graduate admissions in top programs?
The easiest way is to get buy-in beforehand. Find a specific PI you'd like to work with and contact them, best if by phone, preceded by email. Express your interest and how groundbreaking you find their research, and how you can uniquely contribute to their research program. Usually this gets you off the pile and onto someone's desk. The school may have cutoffs for standardized test scores, but even that can be mitigated if you capture a specific persons' interest. The point is, make a personal appeal to an individual.