1) If you have to take out a loan for the application fees, that's definitely too many. Other than that, there's no firm number - it depends on your financial resources, time, intended field and competitiveness of that field, qualifications, and confidence. I know people that applied to a dozen schools and people that only applied to one. What matters is that you get in.
I applied to 15 schools, and that was a lot to handle--each online form is slightly different, each writing sample has slightly different requirements, etc. I managed just fine in the end, but there was a lot of frantic express-mailing going on, and I wish I had trimmed my list down to 12 or so (which I totally could have done had I looked a little more closely at my fit with each program). That said, I agree with ladykathryn that there's no right or wrong number: you're bound by what you can afford in terms of both money and time. But don't sell yourself short by letting that "over the moon if any of them accepted me" feeling govern your list too much: some programs might be better-suited to you than others, and if you have a choice to make, you want to give yourself real and interesting options
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1) Too many schools is more than you can afford and more than you can fill out without killing yourself. It varies widely by field. In my field (psychology) it's not uncommon to apply to 10+ schools whereas in other fields 5-6 is more the norm. It also depends on your credentials. An outstanding candidate may need to apply to fewer programs than a borderline candidate. It's really up to you to judge.
2) I'd ask them what they are currently working on, talk about anything about their research that interests you, what they're teaching, general research atmosphere of the school, etc. They're not necessarily going to know too much about the graduate program and a lot of them won't want to answer those questions anyway.
2) Aside from what everyone else has mentioned, I would also ask them whether they could provide me with the contact details for 1-2 of their current grad students, so you can ask them the 1000 stupid questions about the program. Also, there are a ton of resources on the web that can help you come up with questions. I did a phone interview recently, and by googling that I not only came up with questions that the prof asked me, but also questions that I might ask him.
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Thank you for the comments on talking to professors, this is very helpful.
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2) I'd ask them what they are currently working on, talk about anything about their research that interests you, what they're teaching, general research atmosphere of the school, etc. They're not necessarily going to know too much about the graduate program and a lot of them won't want to answer those questions anyway.
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Also, there are a ton of resources on the web that can help you come up with questions.
I did a phone interview recently, and by googling that I not only came up with questions that the prof asked me, but also questions that I might ask him.
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