I'm just about to start a Masters and I've been looking at some PhD programmes to apply to for 2015 entry. I've obviously been looking at staff research interests, sent some emails etc and not every university is a good fit but I want to apply to a few to increase my chances of getting accepted/ getting funding.
I was thinking that 4/5 would be a good number. Is this too many/ little? And this may sound silly but because I'm doing my Masters at a new university where the staff don't really know me I'm not sure how to go about the whole references thing. I'll feel bad asking a tutor to write me a reference for 4 different universities or is this a standard amount?
Advice would be much appreciated!