Recommender wants to see personal statement and I'm stuck. Forum

[Anonymous User]

Hi All,

I'm hoping to apply to law school this cycle, and have begun seeking out LORs. I'm retaking the LSAT in October, and I'd like to have my application package ready for submission before Thanksgiving, at the latest. One of the professors that I asked for an LOR requested a draft of my personal statement (I had already sent her a resume, transcripts, and a writing sample), and I am simply nowhere near done with it nor satisfied with any of my drafts. I had initially planned on using the 6+ weeks between the LSAT and my self-imposed application deadline to really focus on my personal statement, but now I feel like I need to have it done months in advance, which is a) stressing me out and b) taking time away from LSAT studying. Is there any way to politely decline or delay my professor's request without seeming shady or rude, or should I just try and scrap something together for her knowing it's not going to be reflective of the final product?

Any advice is appreciated!

[Law Sauce]

Hi All,

I'm hoping to apply to law school this cycle, and have begun seeking out LORs. I'm retaking the LSAT in October, and I'd like to have my application package ready for submission before Thanksgiving, at the latest. One of the professors that I asked for an LOR requested a draft of my personal statement (I had already sent her a resume, transcripts, and a writing sample), and I am simply nowhere near done with it nor satisfied with any of my drafts. I had initially planned on using the 6+ weeks between the LSAT and my self-imposed application deadline to really focus on my personal statement, but now I feel like I need to have it done months in advance, which is a) stressing me out and b) taking time away from LSAT studying. Is there any way to politely decline or delay my professor's request without seeming shady or rude, or should I just try and scrap something together for her knowing it's not going to be reflective of the final product?

Any advice is appreciated!

Just be honest, tell the prof it is not done yet. There is no need for it to be done for months. If prof insists, send best draft. Prof did ask for a draft. It is possible that the prof wants to help you out with it.

Also, wrong forum.

[jkpolk]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKNfVDT8uT4

[jbagelboy]

I had a prof ask for this.. When I insisted I didnt have it and they wouldn't send it, I basically just said fuck it and asked someone else.

I hate professors that want that crap. If you want to know my reasons for attending law school, have a fucking conversation with me about it

[clee33]

I had a prof ask for this.. When I insisted I didnt have it and they wouldn't send it, I basically just said fuck it and asked someone else.

I hate professors that want that crap. If you want to know my reasons for attending law school, have a fucking conversation with me about it

Problem is (most) schools don't have a conversation with you about why you want to attend law school, they see your statement. Part of the reason for giving the prof your statement is so s/he can highlight certain attributes of yours consistent with the narrative in your statement.

OP, take some free time over the next week or two to work on it, then send your prof the best copy of your statement that you have. That is still plenty of time for them to write it. Stress that it is just a rough draft. While you may not have a finished product, surely after writing several drafts you have some idea of the themes you wish to write about and the attributes of yours that you wish to highlight. Those aspects of the statement are much more important from the prof's POV than your grammatical syntax (Not that you should be sending the prof something riddled with typos either)

[magickware]

I just told my professor that I haven't written it yet, and that I plan on writing it once I'm done with the LSAT in October.

But I did give him an overview of what I plan on writing it on and all the key points that I plan on emphasizing.

I mean, your professor wants to see your PS so that they know what you plan on writing on and more or less sticking to the same tune. If you tell them what you plan on writing and give them details as they need, then you should be fine.

Unless you decide to change your PS on the last second, of course.

[gobosox]

Just buckle down and write it. Way better than any other course of action. Who cares if it is only 90% complete after your first 5 or 6 hours with it?

[appind]

I have a similar issue. Even if one had a PS, couldn't it be a bad idea to share it with the recommender as opposed to having a talk regarding goals?

During my earlier graduate applications I was told specifically not to share PS with the recommenders because they may use some exact wordings from it. That makes the rec read as if you coached your recommender into saying some things which detracts from the independent assessment of a rec. For example if you don't provide much input to the recommender, he would be forced to think and come up with some concrete examples that he recalls but you may not and are not anywhere in your application package, which can add solid value to the rec.

[A. Nony Mouse]

The above doesn't matter for law schools - law school applications are not like other grad school applications. There will not be any concern that you coached the LOR writer if their letter is consistent with your PS. Besides, if the LOR writer can't think of stuff to write about you without looking at your PS, they're not going to come up with stuff on their own. Just show them your PS if they want to see it.

[KMart]

I sent mine a draft and asked if she wanted to give me comments. She pretty much replied and said maybe it would be helpful if I sent her a final draft before commenting . It is good motivation to get working on that personal statement.

[Nonconsecutive]

Out of the 5 LORs I ended up getting (multiple cycles), only one asked for the PS. I have no idea how she ended up using it, but I just sent a draft. She ended up giving me some writing advice on it, a small portion of which was actually useful.