Well, seeing as how there is only one response after half a day, I'll go ahead and post for those curious.
Undergrad School: Virginia Tech
Degree Applied For: Masters
Undergrad Major/Concentration: Civil
Major/Concentration Applied To: Structural
GPA: 3.90
GRE: 155 V; 165 Q; 4.5 Writing (I didn't study lol)
Research Experience: None
Internship Experience: A co-op at a bridge construction company, an internship in the federal government (not civil), an internship in land development designing new housing complexes, and an internship in utility design.
Schools Applied to: VT, UC Berkeley, UT Austin, UI Urbana Champagne, MIT, UMich
Schools Accepted to: VT, UC Berkeley, UI Urbana Champagne, MIT, UMich
School Went to: MIT
Application Process: Unfortunately rather rushed. I didn't decide which schools I was going to go to until October, and didn't start my applications until early December. Part of the problem is that I thought I would need another semester to graduate, but was then able to fulfill my requirements all in these last two semesters. I individually wrote Statements of purpose for each university, spending about 4-7 hours on each school. In addition to talking about my interest in pursuing the topic for a professional and development perspective, I also discussed how it would help in my interest to solve global issues, citing my job and study abroad experience as stepping stones.
Letters of Recommendation: I didn't do research with any professors but was on good terms with most. I don't go to office hours anywhere near as much as I should, so I didn't quite have the bonds that I probably needed. That being said, all the professors I asked, I took two classes with (at least) and got A's in all of them (why give them something bad to say in that regard?)
Funding or Provisions: I'm paying out of pocket
Misc Info & Tips for Future Applicants:
Don't fret about a bad grade here or there, but you are going to have problems if you did poorly on many fundamental classes like statics or circuits, or whatever constitutes your field. Having a perfect 4.0 is not necessarily a 'perfect' thing though - it may show that you refused to take classes that truly challenged you.
Your application is a composite of many things. Its not enough to get good grades; you need internships, professional organization involvement, and if you want a good chance of funding, research. If you are still in Junior or sophomore year, you have a lot of time to get this stuff squared away. All this stuff is equally important as a good GPA, but I would say you need both for whatever top school you want to go to. My GRE results were actually below average for some of the schools I applied to, indicating that these weren't too important compared to some other factors in my application.
I would strongly recommend doing most of this application stuff in the summer before senior year, as December and November tend to get VERY BUSY and can take away time you would be working on the applications. December 15, the deadline day, was in my finals week. Also, try to take the GRE over the summer if you can. I took it during Thanksgiving break, and didn't have time to study or take it again.
If I could do this process again, I would have researched each school more and personally made an effort to contact professors I wanted to work with. It is very likely I could have gotten a funded option in at least one school. However, NOT ALL SCHOOLS OFFER FUNDING. If you cannot pay your way, then there are certain schools you can't go to, depending on what you are studying. UC Berkeley, for example, doesn't offer any funding to anyone in my specialty (aside from a few very rare cases) for masters.