Someone who's done this before, can you help?

[Kassidy Bingel]

Hi! I'm currently doing my MA in Counseling and trying to apply for clinical psych PhDs/PsyD's for Fall 2026. I have 2 questions:

1. Tips and tricks on emailing potential professor advisors. Should I even do it? How do I phrase the email? And the biggest one I can't figure out--what do I put in the subject line?

2. I'm applying to 12 programs, and they all require 3 letters of recommendation. Do I need to get 36 recommenders or can they send the same letter to each program?

Thank you guys so much!!