Interview Etiquette

[lug monkeybird]

Is it necessary to cancel interview invites that you will probably not accept or do programs just offer interviews until all their interview spots are filled?

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[lug monkeybird]

Is it necessary to cancel interview invites that you will probably not accept or do programs just offer interviews until all their interview spots are filled?

What about thank you letters--better to send a bland short thank you or just not send one. Do these bland letters all end up back in my file so someone can realize that I wrote the same letter to every person I met at their program? And please don't respond with--'it is best to write a good personalized letter'--of course you are going to try vary the letters some but after a while they all sound the same. And the programs you really like will probably recieve a better thank you.

 

[prefontaine]

Absolutely, cancel in advance. You might open a slot for another candidate and you should be courteous of the time involved by the program staff.

Is it necessary to cancel interview invites that you will probably not accept or do programs just offer interviews until all their interview spots are filled?

 

[cyanocobalamin]

Absolutely, cancel in advance. You might open a slot for another candidate and you should be courteous of the time involved by the program staff.

And heaven forbid, you don't match, you might have to scramble there. Don't want there to be any bad blood.

 

[lug monkeybird]

Absolutely, cancel in advance. You might open a slot for another candidate and you should be courteous of the time involved by the program staff.

I should clairfy--unscheduled interview offers. Thanks for the reply but you still didn't answer my question about whether programs just keep on inviting until they have the number of scheduled interviews they desire. I agree that you should cancel an offer if that impacts another applicant, but it seems to me that programs just keep on inviting until their interview spots are filled. If this is true, it wouldn't necessairly matter if you rejected the offer or not.

I would guess that many people are trying not to schedule too many interviews hoping for offers from certain programs and they sit on some less desirable offers. By not rejecting an offer you still have the flexibility to try to schedule there later on if a spot is still available if you do not hear from your more attractive programs. Just curious--if you know for a fact what goes on please reply. Opinions saying 'you should be courteous' maybe be true but are not helpful.

 

[cyanocobalamin]

I should clairfy--unscheduled interview offers. Thanks for the reply but you still didn't answer my question about whether programs just keep on inviting until they have the number of scheduled interviews they desire. I agree that you should cancel an offer if that impacts another applicant, but it seems to me that programs just keep on inviting until their interview spots are filled. If this is true, it wouldn't necessairly matter if you rejected the offer or not.

I would guess that many people are trying not to schedule too many interviews hoping for offers from certain programs and they sit on some less desirable offers. By not rejecting an offer you still have the flexibility to try to schedule there later on if a spot is still available if you do not hear from your more attractive programs. Just curious--if you know for a fact what goes on please reply. Opinions saying 'you should be courteous' maybe be true but are not helpful.

The problem is that there may not be any places left to schedule if you simply 'wait' unless have no interest going there you should schedule (you can change your appt later if you want to) - really unsure just schedule it end of January, then if you're too tired or not interested by that point just don't go (cancel of course, you want to preserve the chance for other people from your school to go there in the future). UC Irvine and Stanford both wrote in their invites that once all places are scheduled they won't schedule any more (or will put you on a waitlist).

 

[axm397]

courtesy aside, when you "sit" on interview offers, you are indirectly showing programs you are not very interested. I would say a week tops on waiting to respond.

I think programs send out initial invites for the number of interview slots. As they hear back from ppl, they send out more invites as ppl decline/cancel. But in general sitting on an offer more than a week or two is not advisable.

in terms of thank you letters, why bother if you clearly think of it as a big hassle? Sending an insincere thank you card can be just as bad as not sending one at all. I basically sent cards thanking the interview for taking time out of their busy day to interview me and wrote a sentence or two about specific conversation topics during the interview (if it was interesting). If not, just how much I liked the program. It only takes 2-3 sentences to write a quick thank you card.