Is it acceptable to directly contact the interviewer?

[canadanon]

At Vanderbilt, I had a good interview with a very influential member of the admissions committee. They said it will take 6-8 weeks to make a decision. It has not been over 13 weeks.


At Wayne State, I have been placed on hold. Here too, I had a good interview. Should I directly contact my interviewer? If so, what should I discuss?

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[NickNaylor]

If you have nothing to discuss, you shouldn't be contacting them. In fact I wouldn't recommend contacting them under any circumstance unless you're sending a thank you. You'd be better served sending an update letter to the admissions office.

 

[tantacles]

If you have nothing to discuss, you shouldn't be contacting them. In fact I wouldn't recommend contacting them under any circumstance unless you're sending a thank you. You'd be better served sending an update letter to the admissions office.

One more thing: If they gave you their direct e-mail address, feel free to send the thank you note directly to them. If not, all correspondence should go to the office of admissions.

 

[music2doc]

If you have nothing to discuss, you shouldn't be contacting them. In fact I wouldn't recommend contacting them under any circumstance unless you're sending a thank you. You'd be better served sending an update letter to the admissions office.

Agreed.

There are, of course, exceptions but they are highly unlikely to apply to you. For instance, I contacted one of my interviewers about a week after sending my update letter to ask him to come and speak to the students in our premedical program. (I am also in charge of said program.) I gave him a week after receiving my thank you so that he would have had plenty of time to submit my eval already (i.e., I did not want to create any hint of a conflict of interest). End result: ACCEPTED a few days before he spoke to our students, but I kind of doubt it had anything to do with my request. Other than something very uncommon like that, I don't think contacting your interviewer beyond a thank you is generally wise, much less necessary/helpful.

However, post-acceptance, several of my interviewers contacted me and said to give them a call if I had any questions about the program, school, etc. The relationship definitely changes post-acceptance.

 

[Doc2doc2]

I contacted one of my interviewers because he was involved in a program in which I was highly interested. We had discussed it briefly just at the end of the interview before my time ran out. I made it clear that I would still be interested whether or not I was accepted to that school. It ended up well for me, but then again he might have considered me presumptuous. I say it is an unnecessary risk. Just be patient and if you cannot be, contact the admissions office.

 

[bigloley]

Many interviewers are explicitly asked not to correspond with interviewees outside of the interview (want to make sure process is fair). It's probably best to contact the admissions office instead.

 

[SoonerFromTexas]

I sent thank you e-mails to mine. I wouldn't contact them for any other reason though. Some have told me that I could if I had a question, but I probably still wouldn't.

 

[johnisles2011]

I wouldn't send them anything except a thank you. Personally I usually email thank yous, but if it's someone I think might be important or influential, I'll send them a handwritten note.

The one caveat might be if you want to send an "update letter" but that probably is best going into the general admissions email rather than the inbox of the specific interviewer. The other caveat is if you and an interviewer discussed something in particular and you told them you would follow up (like a buddy of mine who talked about a specific book with an interviewer and emailed her after reading it; I"m not sure if that was even that smart anyway, though).