Interview thank you notes

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I just interviewed today and plan on writing one to each of my interviewers and one to the admissions staff/secretary/dean.
 
i never write thank you notes cuz they seem cheesy and pointless. i just thank the interviewer by his or her name in person, and then before i leave i thank the coordinator. but thank you notes seemed forced and to me are a lame attempt to suck up.
 
pratik7 said:
I just interviewed today and plan on writing one to each of my interviewers and one to the admissions staff/secretary/dean.



to the staff/secretary/dean???....thats being way too toady!
 
futuremsfdoc said:
i never write thank you notes cuz they seem cheesy and pointless. i just thank the interviewer by his or her name in person, and then before i leave i thank the coordinator. but thank you notes seemed forced and to me are a lame attempt to suck up.
at upenn, they gave us info on where to send thank you notes in our exit packet. i wasnt about to not send them after i got that.

i came into this process like you. but as im going through it, im getting way too neurotic not to cover every one of my bases.
 
interview thank you notes are too cheesy...some schools expect them...others consider it rude otherwise...anyways nothing can be too cheesy...im sure theyve seen it all!
 
is it professional/unprofessional/arrogant to give your an interviewer a business card (my school allows us the option to buy them) with our name, email, major, grad. date?
 
Just meet somewhere in the middle and send a thank you e-mail to the folks at the school.
 
lakersfan said:
is it professional/unprofessional/arrogant to give your an interviewer a business card (my school allows us the option to buy them) with our name, email, major, grad. date?

LOL! business card?! for what? "oh, by the way, dr. smith, if you ever feel like blazin' it up anytime, i wanna let you know that i deal the finest weed in berkeley and that's saying something if you know what i mean!" 😉
 
I didn't send any thankyou notes. Mostly because I'm too lazy but also because it seemed cheesy. I think it depends on the school if they put it in your file or not.
As far as business cards are concerned well they do already have that information so I wouldn't but if you really hit it off with the interviewer then maybe.
 
:laugh: The neuroticism amongst applicants seems to be increasing exponentially as we move further along in the process. :scared: (see also the numerous "2 or 3 button suit" type threads popping up)

To to OP, I've only sent a few thank you's. It is considered proper etiquette, but in an increasingly outdated sort of way. I would send them to each interviewer, but frankly I haven't had the time. Anyway, I sincerely doubt that it has any bearing on your actual application. But OTOH it can't hurt.
 
constructor said:
LOL! business card?! for what? "oh, by the way, dr. smith, if you ever feel like blazin' it up anytime, i wanna let you know that i deal the finest weed in berkeley and that's saying something if you know what i mean!" 😉

lol
 
IndyZX said:
at upenn, they gave us info on where to send thank you notes in our exit packet. i wasnt about to not send them after i got that.

Really? I'm curious where did it say to send them? I know thank you notes sent to interviewers do not go to the admissions committee and so really don't matter when it comes to admissions.
 
Neuronix said:
Really? I'm curious where did it say to send them? I know thank you notes sent to interviewers do not go to the admissions committee and so really don't matter when it comes to admissions.


But is that true at every school?
 
Neuronix said:
Really? I'm curious where did it say to send them? I know thank you notes sent to interviewers do not go to the admissions committee and so really don't matter when it comes to admissions.
the paper said to send the notes to the admissions office and they will fwd it to the interviewers
 
I was going to send thank you notes, but then decided it just wasn't me. I felt a little awkward since I never really send TY notes for anything. Amazingly enough, I was still accepted.
 
kappasigMD41 said:
I was going to send thank you notes, but then decided it just wasn't me.

I never sent them either, except in two cases when the interviewer really did something for me. Frankly, the people who deserve your thanks are the people who student host you. I guess that's not true for all student hosts, but it's true for alot of them. I know when I host it's alot more time out of my schedule than when I interview. An interviewer does not lose much time interviewing you, and so to me for an applicant to send a thank you note to their interviewer and do nothing for their student host just shows why pre-meds send thank you notes. Why? To maximize their chances of getting in. Not to show genuine thanks.

More of my 2c.
 
We were told by the associate dean of admissions not to worry about sending thank you notes. I don't really think its that big a deal - the interviewers fill out the forms for you directly after the interview, so your thank you note probably won't affect your chances of getting in to the school. However, if you are genuinely thankful for something that the interviewer did for you, then I agree with some of the previous posts to go ahead and send a thank you note.
 
futuremsfdoc said:
i never write thank you notes cuz they seem cheesy and pointless. i just thank the interviewer by his or her name in person, and then before i leave i thank the coordinator. but thank you notes seemed forced and to me are a lame attempt to suck up.

True, there is an aspect of sucking up. But it also is polite and shows that you are a professional. And, I've been told by many admission people that you absolutely should write thank you notes to at least your interviewer.
 
RaistlinMajere said:
True, there is an aspect of sucking up. But it also is polite and shows that you are a professional. And, I've been told by many admission people that you absolutely should write thank you notes to at least your interviewer.

Yup, thank you notes are polite. They really be shouldn't sent with the hope of them helping your application, get real.

On the other hand, if you get in to the school where you sent the interviewer a thank you note, you've already made an impression on a member of faculty.
 
Friday said:
Yup, thank you notes are polite. They really be shouldn't sent with the hope of them helping your application, get real.

On the other hand, if you get in to the school where you sent the interviewer a thank you note, you've already made an impression on a member of faculty.

Right, I didn't mean to imply that it would help your chances, but rather that it is polite. I think the reason that admissions people say this is because of that reason, not because it will help a person get in.
 
What is the general consensus on email thank yous? is it essential to do paper/snail-mail emails? 😕
 
lulubean said:
What is the general consensus on email thank yous? is it essential to do paper/snail-mail emails? 😕

If I may summarize about 50 threads on this topic: most feel that sending thank you letters to your interviewers covers your bases just in case the absence of one would hurt you. Few, including myself, believe that they are essential and many, also including myself, never sent them and did just fine.
 
I think its kinda nice to send out thank yous (not because it will guarentee you admission but because your interviewer & admissions staff have to deal with you and a bunch of other crazy premeds all day... just look at this site and you'll start to see what I mean).

I have sent them both by email and paper. Usually I send paper to the admissions office itself cause I figure that I want to thank the staff there as a whole . I usually email my interviewers and quite frequently they will email back after you're accepted to encourage you to come (or in my case after michigan beats their alma mater at football. Go blue!).

In the end, do what seems most natural to you.
 
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