<p>I just want to see what your guys’ opinions are on which is more heavily weighted.</p>
<p>I’m leaning a bit towards SOP. It feels like this statement gives the admittance commitee a more personal touch of yourself and provides them with information about your past, present, and future.</p>
<p>LORs are important too, but I can’t help but feel that some professors are not are that honest about their students. Some may provide them with praise they don’t deserve and vise versa. It all depends on the professor’s personality. </p>
<p>Have you guys heard of students getting into good grad schools with a strong SOP but average LORs? </p>
<p>What about students getting into good grad schools with strong LORs, but average SOP?</p>
<p>I realize this question is black and white and a combination of strength in both is obviously the best, but I’m curious to see which one you guys think is more important.</p>
<p>It probably depends on the program, but in general LORs are are <em>by far</em> more important. Most SOPs look similar, and they barely have an effect on admission, unless you put critical information in there that are not part of your application elsewhere. If you’re a borderline candidate a nice SOP can get you in though.</p>
<p>LORs are possibly the most important part of your application, besides grades and research. A glowing LOR from someone the admission committee knows will easily get you one foot into the door.</p>
<p>A lot of the websites, mainly from universities, have said “SOPs are one of the most important, if the the most important, criteria in an application.”</p>
<p>I.E. in UCB’s FAQ <a href=“https://career.berkeley.edu/article/041112b-so.stm[/url]”>https://career.berkeley.edu/article/041112b-so.stm</a></p>
<p>Yeah I do understand what you’re saying about LORs. But I feel they’re not as honest because those connections can really help, even if there is another applicant with similar credentials, but without the connection.</p>
<p>It depends on the program, and I can mainly speak for Engineering programs. It may be very well be that SOPs are a lot more important in the humanities. Similarly, this may also be true for non-research-oriented programs.</p>
<p>You are right about the connections, but unfortunately that’s true and how it works. A well-known professor speaking well about you counts orders of magnitude more than whatever you write about yourself in the SOP. By highly recommending you, they not only write a simple recommendation for you, but they also put their own reputation on the line. What if after all you turn out to be a bad admit? I know first hand that a single glowing recommendation from someone well-known can completely turn the application around.</p>
<p>It’s also the case that a many admits get in through connections, directly or indirectly. Many, of course not all, people have directly or indirectly worked with their advisors before, or at least with people that their advisor knows.</p>
<p>Why do you think that LORs are not honest? I can, and have written letters for students of all ability levels and I am honest about where I think they stand. It would not do my reputation any good if I highly recommended a student for a selective program which the student would not be able to handle.</p>
<p>Similarly, when I read applications, the LORs are one of the most important factors. The SOP is important too but I mostly pay attention to more practical aspects of the document, like why they want to enter our program, whether they know something about it and how they have prepared themselves for graduate school.</p>
<p>It depends on the program, but letters of recommendation are generally more important. They are letters written by people who have already done what you want to do, who have experience in doing that thing and may even have experience shepherding other students through it. Anybody can write about themselves and how great they think they are and how well-prepared they are, but when you get independent confirmation from someone else in your field, it gives it more weight.</p>
<p>Professors are not going to risk their reputation on recommending someone they don’t think would succeed in graduate school.</p>