e-mailing an interviewer

[poloace]

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if your interviewer has given you their business card with their contact information, is it poor form to drop a line and check in with them? i've already written a formal thank you letter to this person, so i just wanted to say hi and chew the fat.... mmm... fat.

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[XxRocKxX]

I don't see why that would be a problem. Sometimes, instead of writing and mailing a letter, I just email them saying thanks. Only one interviewer has actually ever responded. But hey, can't hurt. Hopefully they remember you.

 

[tBw]

It depends what you mean by "chew the fat" - if you mean ask them relevant questions regarding the program or school then yes, they gave you their card so you should feel free to contact them. However, if you just mean emailing them to thank them again, or remind them you are still interested - I'm not sure if there would be a point, as faculty do have limited time.

So, my answer is 'yes' as long as you have something to say...I certainly have contacted faculty post interview seperate from the letter of thanks to ask follow up questions...usually after visiting some other school where they showcase something and it makes me think "hmm, I wonder how thats done at School X..."

 

[Mike59]

I think you're going overboard at that point (a second contact attempt).

A good interview is all takes to get in, its up to the adcom anyway, not the interviewer. "Chewing the fat" at this point would be more annoying than productive in my opinion.

 

[kcol22]

Even though it is difficult for me to admit this, I actually agree with Mike59, you shouldn't continue to contact your interviewer after the original thank you letter. There are two exceptions two this in my mind: 1)your interviewer has contacted you back in some way after the thank you letter or 2) you actually have a pressing question that you think would best be answered by a faculty member of that school.

 

[periodista]

Depends on the interviewer. I've had some interviewers to whom I've sent a thank you note and left it at that. It would just alienate them, I think, to get an e-mail. I've had another interviewer, though, who made it a point to give me his business card (we were down the hall after the interview and he made us walk back to get it) and who told me to e-mail him with any questions, concerns etc. I dropped him a line a couple of days later to send him a copy of an article I knew he would be interested in. He wrote me back a long message and we have kept in touch sporadically since then. The reason I could send him an e-mail, though, was that he liked me and welcomed it and told me so. You also should know that I got accepted a week after my interview, so all but one or two of these e-mails have not been about acceptance, but about other topics (books to get, political discussions, families, etc).

 

[UCLA2000]

I sent an informal email thank you to a few of my interviewers. If they emailed me back and left an opening for further contact then I'd take it. If they didn't then I wouldn't keep emailing them. You run the risk of annoying them.