Finally, a reply to your questions: first of all, yes the TOEFL score you mentioned is a good score! Remember, there is no such thing as a good TOEFL score for a foreigner, since TOEFL is designed for foreigners only, so if you get 300 it doesn't mean that you speak/read/write English as a native speaker, it just means that, for a foreigner, your English is good, AND you were able to concentrate all through the test!
I'm not (yet) studying the Barron's list, since I have other means of studying for the verbal GRE (Kaplan's vocab builder and "Words for smart test takers") and I feel there is so much material available that it can overload you. I need to do one thing at a time, and maybe I'll start the list later on, if I've finished the other two. I have already done the GRE once, and I got 640 for verbal (which is not bad) with little preparation, so I hope that now I can get a score in the 700s, the higher the better of course!
The GRE lit book that is coming out is actually a new version of "Cracking the GRE lit test" by Princeton Review. So it's not an ETS book.
For personal statements, check
www.essayedge.com , they have a full online course on writing your statement of purpose and lots of examples! (I haven't started yet either, but I used it last year, and it was very helpful)
Concerning the number of universities, yes, I think 15 is about the number I'm going to apply to. I've made a full excel-sheet with all the criteria and all the information so that I won't miss any deadlines or any application material... But I still need to select the universities. I think I will apply to around 6 or 7 top 10 universities, another 6 or so ranked between 11 and 40, and then maybe 2 ranked 60 or so. I think (and hope) that will secure me a place in a good university and get me a chance of getting some financial assistance...
