A few questions

[kohrnb]

Hi all

Comments

[somniumdraconae]

1) As many as are relevant to what you want to study. Many online search tools exist for locating schools and programs of interest. If you have a pretty narrow field of interest and these tools produce a handful of results (5-10) apply to all of them. If you have a broader interest or there just happen to be lots of schools (dozens or even 100+) then start applying further categories to narrow them down. Perhaps a region of the country you'd like to be in, or certain other features available within the program or school that aren't directly related to the program. Most people advise applying to at least four, based on the people I've talked to successful students will apply to anywhere between 6 and 15 schools. Choose a range of programs from state and private institutions including some that you think will be "easy" to get in to (perhaps because it is a smaller state school that has a high acceptance rate or smaller applicant pool), but don't be afraid to include a few "reach" schools and "top" choices that you know will be difficult

[narfenugen]

1) It depends on what your goals are

[tisiphone]

1) As many as you need to, and no more. Seriously, there's no set number - find the programs you're interested in and apply to them. Don't apply willy-nilly, as it's expensive and pointless.
2) Contact the professors you're most interested in working with. The goal of contacting professors isn't to raise your profile, it's to a) make sure that what you're thinking will fit into a potential supervisor's plans, and b) answer questions about the program. So that's how many you need to contact.
3) It needs to be customized to each program to the extent that it makes it clear that you're applying to that program particularly for reasons, and that your research plan fits into their program. You probably don't need to extensively customize discussion of your past experience.

[tylik]

*waves*