ratiocinator

I've asked a number of professors this question and received largely the same answer from all of them: it probably can't hurt you, but it probably can't help you either. Some professors find it to be a bit transparent and thus off-putting. Others say that while they always respond politely, there is rarely anything of substance to say before reading someone's application. All of them agree that contacting professors is unlikely either to sink a good application or to tip the balance on a so-so one. As to the admissions anecdote about the applicant who was only rejected from those schools at which she didn't contact professors, I offer this: maybe the student only reached out to professors who were a good "fit" and/or did more research in order to bulk up the content of the email. Either way, the emails themselves didn't make a difference: you are always more likely to get into schools at which you are a good fit and about which you've done research.

Good call! As I've begun to trim my list of schools from an unreasonable number to a barely-reasonable number, I'm deciding against programs that only have one or two professors with whom I'd like to work. Do you have a final list? If so, how did you arrive at it?

Agreed. It had the font of a teenager's Myspace profile. No good.

I am definitely down for a subject GRE/general anxiety group...

Here's hoping someone who's gone through this process will have insight into this: Having finalized my list of schools, I'm refining a (fairly epic) list of professors whose research interests I share. Is it problematic if some of these professors are tenure-track associate or assistant professors? Most are full professors; still, it gives me pause.

My advisors have given me to understand that GRE scores don't have to be very high