I did this, with great success, when I was applying to math graduate schools. I was in an unusual situation -- had been out of school for five years, and so di

I did this, with great success, when I was applying to math graduate schools. I was in an unusual situation -- had been out of school for five years, and so did not have any useful contacts. So I browsed the personal home pages of graduate students at programs I was interested in, e-mailed several of them out of the blue, and asked them about what they liked about their programs. For the most part, they were wonderfully supportive. I got several very substantive and encouraging replies, and learned some useful information about programs I was interested in. I'm very glad I did it. The situation was somewhat different from OP's --- I didn't want anything from them (and indeed there was nothing they could have done for me) other than to reply to my messages. In particular, I didn't entertain the thought of sending them a resume to pass on (it wouldn't have helped). So different situation, but for me it worked.