Any value to letter of interest?

[Sean2tall]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Just wondering if anybody has any experience/anecdotes about sending a program a letter to say you are interested when you have apparently been passed over for an interview. (That is, they have offered some interviews but not you.) It is still pretty early, but I was weighing whether this would be useful at all, maybe sometime after dean's letters.

Or does anyone know of programs who have gone back unprovoked and offered interviews after initially not.

 

[oxygen]

Just wondering if anybody has any experience/anecdotes about sending a program a letter to say you are interested when you have apparently been passed over for an interview. (That is, they have offered some interviews but not you.) It is still pretty early, but I was weighing whether this would be useful at all, maybe sometime after dean's letters.

Or does anyone know of programs who have gone back unprovoked and offered interviews after initially not.

I did it. I called and emailed, the result is: rejected+feel myself very stupid+regret of what I did.😳

You can try if you want. Maybe a different result, but if it is different, let me know.

 

[yaah]

Well, one way to look at it is that it can't hurt. If they aren't going to give you an interview, the letter isn't going to hurt you any more. But maybe they just had some people cancel interviews and are looking for more to fill a spot and your letter might help them make that decision. I have no real idea if that is realistic, but as I said it can't hurt, except perhaps for your self esteem, if that matters to you.

I guess there is one way it could hurt, that they could post your letter department wide and people could make fun of you. But I think that's unlikely.

 

[pathgrrl]

I agree, why not?
You could frame it as a matter of convenience, as in:
"I'll be in the a neighborhood, would you review my application?"