Methods and apparatus for managing a media session on a network device, and for selecting and applying policies to the media session. The network device may initially evaluate a general set of media session policies. A subset of the policies may be identified by selecting only those policies whose rules are currently satisfied, or whose rules are not presently satisfied but which may be satisfied when a fast-changing characteristic of the media session changes. Policies whose rules are not initially satisfied due to a slow-changing characteristic are not likely to be satisfied within the life of the media session, and can be excluded from the subset of policies. Thereafter, only the subset of selected policies need be re-evaluated during the media session.