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<p>I’ll bite, although I’m astounded that this needs to be explained. </p>
<p>Both the student and the professor are engaging in unethical behavior, although the student is in a much more difficult position. I want to clarify that it’s one thing to give your professor your SoP and meet to discuss your goals, what you see as your strengths, etc., and quite another to write the letter itself.</p>
<p>So why it is unethical? Think about what the letter is supposed to be: a statement from a professor that gives his perspective on how you will fare as a graduate student. You supply your side of the story with the SoP; he/she adds a description from the professorial/PI side. If the student writes his own letters, he is fraudulently asserting that this is what Professors A, B, and C think. </p>
<p>As for Mr. Zoo’s comment that a busy prof in a huge department may have 30 letters to write: well, yes. That’s part of the job, to write LORs and to get students into grad school. If he doesn’t know enough about you to write a decent letter, then you are asking the wrong person. </p>
<p>There’s one other factor that I hadn’t considered at first: are these profs who are asking you to write your own recommendations native English speakers?</p>
<p>I understand that it puts you in a difficult position when a prof insists that you write your own letter. But no matter which way you look at it, it is dishonest to misrepresent part of your application package.</p>