LOR writers in statement

[KayDee103]

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Is it necessary to mention all LOR writers in the SOP? Two of my writers are PIs with whom I've worked, so I'm obviously mentioning them. The third, however, is my academic adviser. I have a great relationship with him and he certainly influenced my academic and professional choices, but I haven't mentioned him in my current SOP version. I could throw his name in as part of my progression of interests, but it doesn't seem necessary and I want to avoid "fluff" statements.

Thank you all in advance for your input!

🙂

 

[CheetahGirl]

Is it necessary to mention all LOR writers in the SOP?

Hmmmm, I wonder why you need to mention any of your LOR writers in your SOP at all? I personally do not favor "name dropping" and would use that space (word count) mainly to focus on how great you are as an applicant (w/o dropping names...your CV will detail what position you've held with whom). However, if your LOR writers are nationally-renowned, like if you worked in Allan Schore, Beatrice Beebe or Edna Foa's lab as an undergrad (all BIG names in my field of study), then by all means - go for it.

Incidentally, I've seen name-dropping done at the internship essay-writing phase, but perhaps by then many directors of training are more familiar with the names being dropped. I'm actually guilty of doing it myself in one internship essay b/c the name I dropped is a major theorist in my field of research, and I want to be asked about her & our work together, which provided my funding scholarship. But, I felt weird about doing it though and no one suggested I do otherwise & all my friends did it (peer pressure of different sort).

At the level of applying to doctoral programs, it doesn't make much sense to me and makes your LOR writers seem grandiose (especially if program directors are like "WTF?! Dr. Bob Smith...who's that?!"). It could be a distraction from the flow of your SOP.
I suggest drafting an SOP without any LOR writers' names at all and see how you fare on your own merit (no one will take away the fact that you worked with these great people who are supporting your endeavors). Good luck!

 

[KayDee103]

Hmmmm, I wonder why you need to mention any of your LOR writers in your SOP at all? I personally do not favor "name dropping" and would use that space (word count) mainly to focus on how great you are as an applicant (w/o dropping names...your CV will detail what position you've held with whom). However, if your LOR writers are nationally-renowned, like if you worked in Allan Schore, Beatrice Beebe or Edna Foa's lab as an undergrad (all BIG names in my field of study), then by all means - go for it.

Incidentally, I've seen name-dropping done at the internship essay-writing phase, but perhaps by then many directors of training are more familiar with the names being dropped. I'm actually guilty of doing it myself in one internship essay b/c the name I dropped is a major theorist in my field of research, and I want to be asked about her & our work together, which provided my funding scholarship. But, I felt weird about doing it though and no one suggested I do otherwise & all my friends did it (peer pressure of different sort).

At the level of applying to doctoral programs, it doesn't make much sense to me and makes your LOR writers seem grandiose (especially if program directors are like "WTF?! Dr. Bob Smith...who's that?!"). It could be a distraction from the flow of your SOP.
I suggest drafting an SOP without any LOR writers' names at all and see how you fare on your own merit (no one will take away the fact that you worked with these great people who are supporting your endeavors). Good luck!

Thanks for your response!

To clarify, I definitely did not mean for name dropping, I agree with your view on that completely. I meant in the sense of establishing why I chose the writers that I did, how they influenced me. But from your explanation I know not to worry about mentioning my adviser now, so thank you! Obviously he will explain on his end the context of our relationship, so I don't need to.

To follow up on your other points, I have been under the impression that it is normal, if not encouraged in a sense, to include the names of PIs you've worked with. I have a lot of different research experience and I am including all of that in my SOP in order to explain how each prepared me along the way. Isn't it more appropriate to say "I joined Dr. Smith's ABCD Lab at U University, which studies XYZ. Here I learned .... which made me interested in...." Rather than saying "I joined a lab studying XYZ...." My view on this has been that it is best to be specific rather than vague, especially because then the reader can easily find this entry in your CV to find out more about the position. To be honest I have no idea whether they will know all of my PIs, that's not the reason I'm including them. Regardless, my CV makes it clear who I've worked under, but now I'm questioning my SOP format. The last thing I want is come off as grandiose, that's for sure!

Would love to get more of your feedback 🙂

 

[AcronymAllergy]

Thanks for your response!

To clarify, I definitely did not mean for name dropping, I agree with your view on that completely. I meant in the sense of establishing why I chose the writers that I did, how they influenced me. But from your explanation I know not to worry about mentioning my adviser now, so thank you! Obviously he will explain on his end the context of our relationship, so I don't need to.

To follow up on your other points, I have been under the impression that it is normal, if not encouraged in a sense, to include the names of PIs you've worked with. I have a lot of different research experience and I am including all of that in my SOP in order to explain how each prepared me along the way. Isn't it more appropriate to say "I joined Dr. Smith's ABCD Lab at U University, which studies XYZ. Here I learned .... which made me interested in...." Rather than saying "I joined a lab studying XYZ...." My view on this has been that it is best to be specific rather than vague, especially because then the reader can easily find this entry in your CV to find out more about the position. To be honest I have no idea whether they will know all of my PIs, that's not the reason I'm including them. Regardless, my CV makes it clear who I've worked under, but now I'm questioning my SOP format. The last thing I want is come off as grandiose, that's for sure!

Would love to get more of your feedback 🙂

I think the way you've described explaining your prior research experience is fine. I'd just urge you to try and be as succinct as possible with it (e.g., group the experiences together whenever possible to help create a brief, coherent narrative of your research "trajectory" thus far).

I also agree with CheetahGirl's point that I wouldn't feel the need to explain my relationship to any of the LOR writers in the SOP, at least with respect to why they're writing me a LOR (as mentioned, they should cover that in their letter). If you happen to mention them because they were the PI in the lab, then that's fine. But if that's not the case, I certainly wouldn't say you'd need to spend extra time and space explaining your relationship to the writers (e.g., "Dr. XXX is writing me a letter because I took an Abnormal Psychology class with her").

 

[KayDee103]

I think the way you've described explaining your prior research experience is fine. I'd just urge you to try and be as succinct as possible with it (e.g., group the experiences together whenever possible to help create a brief, coherent narrative of your research "trajectory" thus far).

I also agree with CheetahGirl's point that I wouldn't feel the need to explain my relationship to any of the LOR writers in the SOP, at least with respect to why they're writing me a LOR (as mentioned, they should cover that in their letter). If you happen to mention them because they were the PI in the lab, then that's fine. But if that's not the case, I certainly wouldn't say you'd need to spend extra time and space explaining your relationship to the writers (e.g., "Dr. XXX is writing me a letter because I took an Abnormal Psychology class with her").

Makes perfect sense. I will keep all of this in mind when editing my SOP. Really appreciate your input!

 

[researchgirl]

I agree you don't need to explain your relationship to any of the LOR writers in your SOP - their letter will say "I know KayDee from X." However, my SOP definitely mentioned the name of all three of my LOR writers, because I had worked under all three as an RA. Direct quote, circa 2008: "At University Z, I have been working with Drs. A and B on two research studies focused on topic X and one study on top Y."... and then I go on to say what responsibilities I had, what I learned, etc.