Kudos to all of you folks and a bit thanks from someone starting this phase of the battle!
I suppose I'll be messaging a few of you privately. I have handfuls of questions and my head's spinning, doing summersaults with my stomach, and then jumping off into 15 different directions right now.
It seems that I'll be relying heavily on my SOP and writing sample to get into these programs. I'm determined to get into one of the highly competitive toppers (top 20ish), but I'm one of those applicants finishing up their undergrad and wondering what I can get without any research experience! (But that's discussion for another thread.)
Thanks everyone!