<p>If all of your interest in a program is directed at a single professor, then it is probably advantageous to contact him/her with ixington’s question. If the professor informs you now that they are not taking on any more students, then you will not have wasted your time applying.</p>
<p>Personally, I wouldn’t apply to or attend any program in which only one faculty member does research interesting to me, because if you go, and the environment of his research group turns out not to be right for you, well, then you may be out of luck. When I was being advised on selecting graduate schools to apply to, my professors told me there should be 10+ faculty members that I could visualize myself working with. But that could be field-specific.</p>
<p>SPICEy, if this is somebody you think you would really, REALLY want to work with, and the professor tells you he has space for more students, maybe then should you apply. But you’ll have to determine at the interview weekend whether the research environment created by the professor makes you happy.</p>
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Don’t throw out your stats when proactively contacting professors, anyway. It’ll just make them angry at having to state the obvious: “I do not have a direct hand in admitting you.”</p>