help!! no SOP to send to LOR writers!

[confusedstudent20]

for some reason, i guess i got overzealous and emailed LOR writers before I even had anything prepared to send to them. of course my recommenders asked for a statement of interests. i'm furiously trying to get everything together to send to them (its been a few days since they agreed to write my LORs and i have yet to respond), but my SOP is taking the longest. i would like to respond to them by tomorrow.

 

should i make a quick and very rough draft of my SOP to send to them and apologize for how rough it is, or should i basically confess that i dont have anything ready to give to them yet? which would look best? i dont want this to affect my letters

[TakeruK]

Application deadlines are probably pretty far away. What I would do is to write back and say that you were planning to have a draft SOP ready in (1? 2? whatever you need) weeks and ask if that is okay. In my opinion, there is no point rushing a draft that won't look good and won't help them, especially since they may not write the LORs until next month anyways. However, it's really important that you do check with them that waiting a few weeks is okay because 1) they might be expecting a reply and wonder why you've been silent and 2) they might actually be very busy next month and want to get the LORs finished in the next few weeks (in which case you will just have to give them the best SOP draft you can write).

[fuzzylogician]

I would not send a rough draft that you put together in one day. I'd propose to send your LOR writers a short bullet-point document highlighting your interests, accomplishments, and future plans to help them get started with their LOR and tell them that you'll have a full draft ready in a few weeks. 

[jujubea]

Hmmm, none of my letter writers wanted to see my ACTUAL SOP.  They just wanted to know what my intentions were and then all the things fuzzylogician just said. Is it standard practice to send the LOR writers your SOP? ...yikes!  I'm way behind if so!

[TakeruK]

Hmmm, none of my letter writers wanted to see my ACTUAL SOP.  They just wanted to know what my intentions were and then all the things fuzzylogician just said. Is it standard practice to send the LOR writers your SOP? ...yikes!  I'm way behind if so!

 

For one fellowship application, one professor wanted to see everything I was submitting along with the application (research statement etc.). However, for grad school applications, the same professor did not ask for my SOP beforehand. So for me, I did not have a complete SOP for any of my professors (although I did let them know that it would be ready by Nov 15 if they wanted it--no one asked). However, in mid October, I sent all of my letter writers a complete list of schools that I wanted to apply to, the profs I wanted to work with, and their deadlines. On this page, I summarised my goals for grad school in a short paragraph. I think that, along with numerous conversations with these professors about grad school prior to applying, gave them enough info to write their letters. 

 

So, I am not sure if there is really a "standard" practice--probably depends on each prof's style!