recommendation letters and deadlines

[unitstructures]

Must recommendation letters also meet application deadlines? All of my applications require my submitting the recommenders and their contact in the application, and them requesting the letters directly online. Does this mean it's in my best interest to apply well before the deadline, and ask the recommenders to write before the deadline? Anyone know how much schools usually take to send requests?

(I'm stuck on statement of academic purpose, hence the more time I have before final submission, the better.... Would like to wait until a day or two before the deadline).

Thank you in advance to anyone who can help me out of this confusion!

[rising_star]

The rec letter request usually goes out automatically once your application is submitted. Ideally, you'll give your recommenders at least a week to submit their recommendation. You could probably cut that down to 5 days if they know the request is coming AND it's not close to finals/end of semester/the holidays.

[TakeruK]

Maybe it depends on the field, but the majority of applications in my field have the letter request separate from the application submission process. One of the "pages" of the application form was "enter the reference letter information" and you can enter the person's name and press a button to request a letter from them. This allows you to submit your actual documents much later. I'm just saying this might be the case for you too, so just double check that there isn't a "submit letter request" button that is separate from the application materials. In addition, some of the websites I've used will allow you to upload the files, submit the application, then request letters and still be able to re-upload new files as long as you do so before the deadline. Check this out too (you can make a dummy account to see if it works).

If you really do need to submit the final version of everything then I agree with rising_star that you should give 5-7 days notice as long as you also let them know about the upcoming deadline weeks ago. Make sure those 5-7 days don't include the upcoming Thanksgiving weekend (if your recommenders are in the US). I would treat these cases as the actual deadline being earlier to help motivate me to finalize my essays.

[unitstructures]

Thanks for the replies! 

The application dates and directions are unclear, but perhaps I should just submit everything well before the deadlines. Probably would deflect suspicions of procrastination. I actually just need extra time with so many schools to write individualized sops for, but will probably just stick to the safe side.