<p>Hi everyone,</p>
<p>Just finished the first draft of my SOP and obviously I’m going to try and get some people to review it. Is it standard to ask a professor to review a student’s SOP? I don’t want to waste my professor’s time and/or annoy them but I want to make sure it’s adequate for the programs I’m applying to. Who did you get to review your SOP (friends, english majors, professors, etc.)?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Do it if you know prof well (i.e. 6+ months of relationship where he isn’t shy to share more sensitive/personal business like secret of lab, or his wife/husband/kid situation, or call you by name basis and vice verse)</p>
<p>If you don’t, well, why not go to major advisor? Or TA you got A in class.</p>
<p>I got my TA, my prof (knew 6 months), friends, 3 grad students, my 4.0 undergrad friend review my sop (too much :D)</p>
<p>I had my dad read my first draft for grammar (embarassing).
Then I had my cousin read my second draft for content.
Then I had my uncle (who used to write for commercials) edit that draft.
Then I had my best friend in his 2nd year of grad school read the newer draft.
Then I had my LoR professor read my very final draft. </p>
<p>Along the way everyone had said it was good, but I knew that wasn’t enough so I kept making minor changes. By the end, my professor loved it, said that I’d done a great job, and that it didn’t need any changes. I was fairly confident up to this point even w/o him reading it so I’m glad he confirmed what I’d thought all along. (If he’d slammed it or come back w/ revisions, however, that would ruin me.)</p>
<p>I recommend getting your professor to read it but earlier than I did. </p>
<p>All this happened over a span of about 2-3 months.</p>
<p>Thanks for the helpful replies everyone. So you wouldn’t recommend me asking a professor to review my SOP unless I know him/her exceptionally well? I wouldn’t want to be intrusive but I think it would be helpful to get a professor to review it before I send it out.</p>
<p>Sure, I mean it does not hurt to ask 
But definitely make sure it’s your FINAL draft especially if the prof isn’t someone who know you. (even though I know my prof, that’s what I did. So the order was: undergrad friend, friends, TA, 3 grad students, then prof).</p>
<p>So I would get it through a couple of people filters first, so your prof does not catch those 35 grammar errors and 5 sentences that don’t make sense, which will make him feel like you are not even serious about this (no actually he’ll be too busy correcting those grammer instead of criticizing the SoP itself)</p>