I have a bachelors and am starting a masters in the fall. I did not apply to the masters in a traditional way, it's a 5th year program at my undergrad school, so all I had to do was get my advisor to sign off and I was good to go. Now, I am considering applying for a PhD for Fall 2021 entry. I've vaguely heard some things about how you have to reach out to professors at schools you want to apply to or something like that? Does that mean I need to be pre-approved by a professor to realistically apply to a program? When should I reach out? Do I ask them if they are hiring PhDs or how does that work? Is the person I reach out to supposed to be my prospective advisor? So, do I need to reach out only to those with research interests that match mine?
Once I communicate with someone and they like me as a candidate, then I submit the paperwork to the department with the application, gre, gpa, statements etc.?
