Post-Interview Process

[nejisan]

I have an interview scheduled for late September, and wanted to clarify a couple things about the post-interview process:

Are thank you letters helpful, necessary?
If I interview at my top choice school, should I send them a letter of intent prior to hearing back/before the Oct 15 early deadline?
Is there anything I can do to increase my chances of acceptance besides obviously, interviewing well?

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[snowpea28]

I have an interview scheduled for late September, and wanted to clarify a couple things about the post-interview process:

Are thank you letters helpful, necessary?
If I interview at my top choice school, should I send them a letter of intent prior to hearing back/before the Oct 15 early deadline?
Is there anything I can do to increase my chances of acceptance besides obviously, interviewing well?

Thank you letters differ in how helpful they are based on institution. Some institutions don't care, some will put them in your file. I would send one thank you letter per institution and if you connect with a particular interviewer, you can also send them a thank you email. At my medical school they were neither helpful nor necessary.

Sure, send a letter of intent. It can't hurt.

No, other than interviewing well and performing well on the day of there is little else that you can do to control acceptance.

 

[Stagg737]

Agree with snowpea on everything except the Thank you letter part. I'm sure he's got more experience than I do, but you should ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS send a thank you note to both the institution and your interviewers if you only had 1 or 2 of them. This goes for school interviews as well as job interviews. If the interview was an MMI format, it would be difficult to send thank you letters to 6+ individuals, but I don't think it would hurt either. Some institutions might not care, but I've heard more than one adcom member say that a student was accepted over another applicant because they took the time to send a meaningful thank you note. To them it showed that the student was willing to take that extra step and actually cared, something that most med schools will want out of their students. It might not matter at some places, but it certainly does at others.

 

[Glazedonutlove]

Agree with snowpea on everything except the Thank you letter part. I'm sure he's got more experience than I do, but you should ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS send a thank you note to both the institution and your interviewers if you only had 1 or 2 of them. This goes for school interviews as well as job interviews. If the interview was an MMI format, it would be difficult to send thank you letters to 6+ individuals, but I don't think it would hurt either. Some institutions might not care, but I've heard more than one adcom member say that a student was accepted over another applicant because they took the time to send a meaningful thank you note. To them it showed that the student was willing to take that extra step and actually cared, something that most med schools will want out of their students. It might not matter at some places, but it certainly does at others.

Would you just ask for their contact info during the interview or something?

 

[Stagg737]

Would you just ask for their contact info during the interview or something?

You can ask for their card, or you can just send the letter to the school with Attention: Professor X. You can also ask whoever is running the interview day for the interviewer's contact information and say you want to send them a thank you letter. I found all of those methods to be acceptable during my interviews. It is also helpful to personalize the letter to the interviewer. You can easily do this by mentioning something you talked about or something they taught you and serves as a way to keep your face fresh in their mind when they go to their committee meeting or write their recommendation.

 

[Goro]

No and no.


Are thank you letters helpful, necessary?

How would you interpret a non-binding contract from a desperate applicant?
If I interview at my top choice school, should I send them a letter of intent prior to hearing back/before the Oct 15 early deadline?

No, other than giving the school a 7 figure donation check.
Is there anything I can do to increase my chances of acceptance besides obviously, interviewing well?[/QUOTE]

 

[Glazedonutlove]

no and no.
Are thank you letters helpful, necessary?
How would you interpret a non-binding contract from a desperate applicant?
If I interview at my top choice school, should I send them a letter of intent prior to hearing back/before the Oct 15 early deadline?
No, other than giving the school a 7 figure donation check.
Is there anything I can do to increase my chances of acceptance besides obviously, interviewing well?

Now I know what people mean by meaningful thank you cards...

 

[NotASerialKiller]

No and no.


Are thank you letters helpful, necessary?

How would you interpret a non-binding contract from a desperate applicant?
If I interview at my top choice school, should I send them a letter of intent prior to hearing back/before the Oct 15 early deadline?

No, other than giving the school a 7 figure donation check.
Is there anything I can do to increase my chances of acceptance besides obviously, interviewing well?

[/QUOTE]

Thank God. No offence to Stagg737 but it seemed really weird that schools would expect you to flood them and their interviewers with thank you notes after you thank them in person after the interview.

"Thank you so much for interviewing me, if you don't accept me I have your address haha j/k!! "

 

[Glazedonutlove]

does that mean I can't shop for Halloween thank you cards..

 

[Law2Doc]

Thank you notes are polite, but won't impact you chances. LOIs are sometimes helpful to show a program you have interest, but rarely change your odds. In fact if you go into this process with the attitude "how do I increase my chances", you're doing it all wrong. Just be polite, show interest where you have interest, and otherwise chill out.

 

[whitemagic]

No and no.
No, other than giving the school a 7 figure donation check.

You used to say six figures!! OH GOD INFLATION IS REAL

 

[TaroBubbleTea]

I have an interview scheduled for late September, and wanted to clarify a couple things about the post-interview process:

Are thank you letters helpful, necessary?
If I interview at my top choice school, should I send them a letter of intent prior to hearing back/before the Oct 15 early deadline?
Is there anything I can do to increase my chances of acceptance besides obviously, interviewing well?

When I interviewed, a lot of schools encouraged interviewees NOT to send thank you cards. They were adamant that they had no bearing on the decision whatsoever. However, knowing how neurotic premeds typically are, they still provided contact information for who the cards should go to. So no, thank you cards are definitely not required.

As for LOIs, I think one so early in the game is meaningless. If you are going to use LOIs, use them more judiciously, like after a waitlist.

 

[Goro]

Endowed chairs are expensive!

You used to say six figures!! OH GOD INFLATION IS REAL

 

[Azete]

Endowed chairs are expensive!

Out of curiosity, how many schools (if any) would actually give a seat to a below average student for a ~$3 million donation?

 

[Azete]

I'm curious to know this too! Any thoughts @Goro @gyngyn?

Anecdote: my roommate interviewed at Stanford last year and got waitlisted. Tried to take all desperate measures and utilize all resources he could. Got his PI (who did his residency at Stanford approx. 5 years prior) to ring up the admissions committee and put in a good word for him. PI was told "we literally have our own tenured med school professors trying to vouch for their own CHILDREN (who themselves already have competitive stats to begin with), and we still don't give them preferential treatment, sorry." Seems that pretty much no amount of money could have bought his way into Stanford!

Let's be real for a minute -- everybody has a price. Maybe a great endorsement or even a $1 million check may not have changed much in this instance, but if you drop $1 billion in front of the admissions committee they'll literally accept a blind dog.

 

[Azete]

Well a million is actually realistic, there's no point in even discussing a billion because its not even remotely plausible.

Well yeah, obviously -- unless Zuckerberg's kids want to go to med school. The point was everybody has a price; just curious where that line actually is for most schools.

 

[Goro]

My school did to one sub-par candidate because a relative promised a donation to another school in our University.

@gyngyn probably has a better sense of what goes on.

Out of curiosity, how many schools (if any) would actually give a seat to a below average student for a ~$3 million donation?

 

[deleted158872]

My school did to one sub-par candidate because a relative promised a donation to another school in our University

not really news but still amazes me every time I hear you can buy your way into pretty much everything these days

 

[maxwell_edison]

You used to say six figures!! OH GOD INFLATION IS REAL

Your tuition is six figures. Gotta go higher than that.