Dear Elizabeth,
I have additional question regarding the first issue from this list.
I did very good job with my bachelor degree thesis - It was good independant work, with some original ideas and aproaches, and it was pretty much state-of-the-art. BUT, I had many problems during my education, among them the lack of financial support which led me to get a job before finishing school etc... and all of that resulted in small GPA - a little less than 8.
From this forum, I could understand that it is very hard for someone with low GPA problem to enroll some of graduate schools, but it is not impossible. Am I right?
Now, my question is - Would it improve my chances if I address some of the professors whose works I've used ( or professors who were doing researches in the same field ) and present them my work and results?
I've already done some search and found professors at many universities including Purdue, Texas A&M, Northwestern (Chicago), Florida Atlantic, North Texas Univeristy and many others.
Can you give me some tips (here, or via e-mail, or at the centre) how to write this letter, what should I also mention beside my work, and should I immediately ask something like " ...I wondered if you needed someone to work on this reseach at your department .."?