urgent..!

I'm now in the process of applying for PGRE for Nov-7(thanks to blackcat.!)..
For registration, how do I decide beforehand as to what grad schools or universities I need to apply.? What's the yard-stick here.? Does this (logic.!) apply to general GRE & TOEFL also.?

you have to decide it on the basis of your research interest. and your background potential. to elaborate if you have done some very good research and have published papers and are confident of good recos, and also confident of a good PGRE score (>900) then you can apply to the top universities say top 10. look at the 2009 profiles(in prospective grad section) for getting an idea about what sort of credential one needs to get into an university.

here is the compilation of all the US grad school phy dept

gradphys/index.shtml ..

hope this helps.
by the way where are you in india and what is your background?
i am a mech engg from ISM dhanbad, trying to goto th phy.. .

I'm a gujrati doin elec. engg @govt colg in kerala. Had missed iit by an mm, so settled down here. Recently I did a project in space-physics, hope it helps for my recos. What about you.? What's your background.?

How about universities in canada.? Most of the good ones are getting attached to the Perimeter Insti..

So not true ! Do you research kid ...

What are the Universities attached to PI, technically, none, in practice, only the University of Waterloo.
What are the University in Canada which are usually very good in rankings ? : University of Toronto, University of British Columbia, McGill ...
None of them has anything to do with PI. It's all a matter of professors, and if you look at which professors are link to PI you will find that a lot of them are at University of Waterloo (or some other surrounding Universities, like Guelph, McMaster,Western Ontario ...), but not so much for further away.

Now, I'm hoping to get score of 1400+ in general gre, a 100+ in toefl-ibt and a 850+ in Pgre.
So, during registration, which universities can safely be applied to.?
Please name them, if possible...

There are hundreds. No one can hold your hand through this and tell you what to do every step of the way. You are on a website dedicated to preparing for physics grad school. Do some research and take a look at what is here. If you have specific questions maybe we can help. Telling you where to apply is not something anyone can or will do.

I think you got me wrong.! I'm not asking you to do that.. What I meant is, in such a case, would the top 10 or top 20 universities suffice to be applied to.? Or do I need to include some moderately ranked univ too.?

You can only include something like 4 schools.

see, the admission process in US is not like in india where you just need to qualify an entrance exam and depending on the rank you can choose whatever you like, irrespective of how familiar or experienced you are in that field.

In US you need to prove that you have the prerequisite necessary for succeeding in gradschool in a given field of study, for this you need good research background and good recos showing that you are capable. also you need to know that PGRE score is not treated absolute, ie an american getting 850 is not equivalent to an indian or chinese getting 850, since our system is basically a commit and vomit system (and so many times i have been a victim of it). so u need >900 to get into a decent school . For top 10 and even 20 you need to have a really strong background like publications or talks etc (see through 2009 profiles to get an idea)
you have to go through the dept websites of all the universities, i mean may be not the programs in alaska or north dakota or like (this is where the profiles 2009 comes in) , where they have research opportunities in your field of interest, see through their courses so you can understand what sort of grad exposure is given to your field, go through the prof's CV to know how good he is i mean his publications and sorts and also his age, if he is about to retire then you can just count him out, a large no of profs doing research in your field will be a +ve point for your admission. now as you did something in space physics , may be you can search google for US university depts of physics having that research.
you have to devote yourself for the cause..
Make sure to get atleast 22/30 in your speaking section of TOEFl iBT, it will help you to get TA position without having to take SPEAK.

Thanks blackcat..