Anybody who interviewed at UT Houston got an email and letter from UT Houston?

So I interviewed at UT Houston and the same day of my interview I got this wonderful email from the Program Director. Three days later I get this letter in the mail also from the Program Director at UT Houston General Surgery.

It seems that both the letter and the email are generic and were sent to everybody. I wonder if UT Houston is trying to make applicants think they have a pretty good chance of matching at UT Houston and thus rank the program high on the list.

The email says something like this:


We realize that a candidate of your caliber has a very busy interview schedule. Thank you for taking the time and assuming the expense to interview with us today at UT Houston.

We will not formulate a final rank list until February. However, based on your scores today it is clear that you will be favorably ranked by our program.


Have a happy and safe holiday.

Crush1Lancaster said:

So I interviewed at UT Houston and the same day of my interview I got this wonderful email from the Program Director. Three days later I get this letter in the mail also from the Program Director at UT Houston General Surgery.

It seems that both the letter and the email are generic and were sent to everybody. I wonder if UT Houston is trying to make applicants think they have a pretty good chance of matching at UT Houston and thus rank the program high on the list.

The email says something like this:


We realize that a candidate of your caliber has a very busy interview schedule. Thank you for taking the time and assuming the expense to interview with us today at UT Houston.

We will not formulate a final rank list until February. However, based on your scores today it is clear that you will be favorably ranked by our program.


Have a happy and safe holiday.

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Sounds a little desperate.

I don't know......it does sound like a form letter.

This program has a reputation to be really really malignant.

These are commonly sent by some programs and mean NOTHING.

It doesn't mean anything even if you were the only one to get the letter and email.

Rank programs as you would like to match to them and ignore these letters/communiques.

Winged Scapula said:

These are commonly sent by some programs and mean NOTHING.

It doesn't mean anything even if you were the only one to get the letter and email.

Rank programs as you would like to match to them and ignore these letters/communiques.

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I agree with the above.

Some programs contact every applicant who interviews. Before the interview, after the interview, phone call, email, letter, you name it.

What does it mean? Could be something, could be nothing. The main thing is that it should be irrelevant to you. It shouldn't matter if they say you are ranked at the top, ranked to definitely match, ranked to most likely match, or ranked highly. The benefit of the match is that you rank based on where you want to be, not where the program wants you to be. Please do not be swayed by such communication. Yes, you want to be where you are wanted, but if you match anywhere, the program liked you enough to put you on their match list. So go where you want to be, and put aside considerations of how much a program says they want you. And trying to figure out your odds of matching at that program and figuring out whether someone else got a similar letter or whatnot is not going to be very productive.

The one bad thing is that some people, especially after a personalized email, feel compelled to respond. Usually that entails how you will rank the program. For this reason I think it's a bad idea for programs to say how they will rank you, because it can give pressure on the applicant to divulge his/her rank as well. The programs can then adjust their rank based on applicant interest, although this is pretty irrational behavior, for the same reason as I mentioned above.

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I received a letter/e-mail a few weeks after my interview. I would chalk it up to PDs playing the game they play.