Programs sending out thank yous

[rs2006]

any thoughts would be appreciated. thanks.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Roadrunner]

What's your question?

 

[rs2006]

Which programs have you heard from after you interviewed?

 

[BigBadBix]

Which programs have you heard from after you interviewed?

Colorado, Duke, UCSD, and OHSU sent me unsolicited thank-yous. Everyone at NYU and Cornell replied promptly to my e-mailed thank-you notes.

 

[Mumpu]

Colorado and Michigan unsolicited, NW in response to my thankyou notes.

 

[Fermi]

Colorado, Duke, UCSD, and OHSU sent me unsolicited thank-yous.

I also received mailed thank yous from Colorado and OHSU, probably a standard practice for their interviewers. Got email from a couple others. I haven't received any other feedback or responses to any of my thank yous.

 

[Sunkist06]

dartmouth, uva, scripps clinic all sent out unsolicited 'thank yous'

has anyone got anything from brown?

 

[yeahshure]

f

 

[tos2]

unsolicited thank yous from: Dartmouth, Brown, Hopkins Bayview, Tufts. Anyone heard from Yale or Cornell?

 

[Jitterbug79]

Do you think that these responses really mean anything (ie, like a program is more interested in you, etc.)? I got the impression that those programs that respond probably respond to all candidates just for good PR. Any thoughts on this?

 

[DrHeartMD]

i dont believe that correspondence is very important as I have had lots of responses to thank you letters and some unsolicited stuff...i guess I will let you know march 16th...

 

[docinabox]

I've gotten unsolicited thanks you letters from temple, jefferson, u of michigan, and northwestern.

have anyone gotten anything from upenn?? i know from last year's thread that they sent out thank you letters.

 

[metastatic dz]

I've recieved unsolicited thank yous from Vanderbilt, U of Chicago and Northwestern. Haven't heard anything from Cornell, tos2.

 

[pleasematchme06]

My number one choice sent me a thank you letter (unsolicited) telling me "your application was recieved favorably by our faculty and housestaff....I hope you give our program serious consideration as you plan your residency"

Now to me that does not seem very generic or standard....I am inclined to believe that in the same way that my thank you letters were stronger to the places I want to go, they only send strong letters to people they really want. I can't see how they would send out a letter like that to someone they are not really interested in!

Any other thoughts??

 

[DRDARIA]

My number one choice sent me a thank you letter (unsolicited) telling me "your application was recieved favorably by our faculty and housestaff....I hope you give our program serious consideration as you plan your residency"

Now to me that does not seem very generic or standard....I am inclined to believe that in the same way that my thank you letters were stronger to the places I want to go, they only send strong letters to people they really want. I can't see how they would send out a letter like that to someone they are not really interested in!

Any other thoughts??

Well, to be honest, it sounds pretty standard to me. I've received several notes of that nature from programs where I've interviewed, some before I sent thank you notes, some after (I can be slow in getting my notes out). I assume that these programs are sending notes to everyone who interviewed with them as a courtesy. However it's certainly not a bad sign. I have received some second letters and phone calls more recently that I take more seriously, although it doesn't influence my decision one way or the other. Neither does not receiving a letter/note/email/phone call. Overall, I wouldn't think it should matter. You should rank your top choice as your top choice, regardless. Good luck to you.

 

[Jitterbug79]

I have received correspondance like this too but I don't think that it means that much. My interpretation is that you will probably be in the set of numbers that the program typically has reached in the past to fill their intern class but that there are absolutely no guarantees as each year is slightly different. So I don't think they send this to everyone but I also don't think it means you will be "ranked to match." Hope this helps. I have thought about this quite a bit myself and this was the best I could come up with. Good luck!

 

[pleasematchme06]

Thanks for the replies. I agree just rank in order of preference, period. Although it is tempting to over-interpret this stuff....

Good luck to you as well!

 

[BigBadBix]

it is tempting to over-interpret this stuff....

No kidding. I am of course ranking in order of preference, but I have definitely noticed a difference in the way various programs have responded to me.

For instance, at 2 programs I interviewed with the PD and they said things such as, "I personally chose to interview you today because I was very impressed by your application." Both also sent me very personal notes after the interview, telling me why I should choose their programs. At another place, every person I e-mailed wrote back with something to the effect of: "all your interviewers were extremely impressed," or "you are ranked in our top group." To me, these programs seem more interested than those who said something like "Nice meeting you too, I'm sure you'll thrive here," or didn't reply at all.

Then there is the program from which I received the following responses: "It was wonderful meeting you and it is always fun meeting people like you on the interview day. It reassures us that Medicine is in safe hands," and "I am glad that you had a good visit. I know you have a very bright future ahead of you and I wish you luck in your decision," and my personal favorite: "Thanks very much for writing. The Committee enjoyed meeting with you. It's always a great pleasure to meet so many accomplished students!" Um, thanks. Good to know there is nothing special about me but at least you got to meet a ton of great people.

Of course it could very well be that this last program just has some kind of policy about not revealing anything, but to me the responses are standoffish and stilted. It feels like they weren't impressed but felt they had to say something in reply. I'm still ranking them where I want them (so please no lectures on how I'm reading too much into things, just bringing it up for the sake of conversation) but I would be surprised if I ended up there, just as I would be surprised if I weren't able to get into the places where the PD's were so outwardly positive about me.

 

[Jitterbug79]

I completely agree. I think that there are definitely different levels of interest programs demonstrate to different applicants, although I do not think this guarantees anything at all or that it should change your rank list. The same types of things have been written to me and I have interpreted them the same way as BBB. I hope there is at least some truth to the comments as one of the great ones was from my top choice

 

[DoctorSax]

Yeah, I'm with the triple B on this one--can't take too much stock in these letters they send. From what I can tell, the whole thing is a game. We can't reveal too many of our cards, and they can't either. It's unfortunate too, because I don't know about y'all, but this is the first time that I've been applying for something and felt, "wow, these people really want me here" (not that I'm so special--all of us are sought after for IM). So the littlest sign of interest from a program goes a long way for me, even though it probably shouldn't.

Are there any PDs on this forum that could comment as to how important to a program it is to not go far down its rank list in order to fill? Is it something that's discussed at PD meetings? Such as "Oh I hear that your program had to go down to 35 to fill 32--great work!" Or "Man, you guys had to go all the way to 70 to fill 22? Ouch!"

DS

 

[Jitterbug79]

Do you think "you are ranked at the top" is the same as "you are ranked to match"? Or is that a shady way of saying "you are ranked highly"??

 

[pdintheusa]

Are there any PDs on this forum that could comment as to how important to a program it is to not go far down its rank list in order to fill? Is it something that's discussed at PD meetings? Such as "Oh I hear that your program had to go down to 35 to fill 32--great work!" Or "Man, you guys had to go all the way to 70 to fill 22? Ouch!"

DS

It is not discussed at PD meetings, at least not in IM. At least not by me, and I've been going to the PD meetings for > 5 years. Really, our faculty know about it, and that's about it. They are explicitly warned that it is not for general knowledge, and particularly not for the residents' knowledge. Otherwise they all want to know who the 'last' person was, and we want everyone to feel a part of the program.

"Ranked at the top" seems like a pretty powerful statement to me, and I certainly wouldn't throw those words around. My residents do, however, tell me some fairly scary stories of unscrupulous PD's out there.

I try to be pretty careful about the words I use in general. The best advice is again, rank where you want to be - and hopefully, the cosmic forces will align for all of us. Don't sell out to someone who writes you a nice letter or you'll always wonder if you'd gotten your top choices. Any PD who wants to know where their program will be ranked is violating Match rules and is likely not the kind of person you want to spend 3 years with.

Good luck! [PS - 70 to fill 22 would be pretty good, even for the top tier ]

 

[pnasty]

So i hear you guys saying that these letters dont mean anything positive.....but is not receiving them a negative thing? Specifically, I sent thank you letters (not emails) to all my interviewers at Northwestern and haven't received anythign in return (i interviewed early september), but it seems like a bunch of you have gotten thank yous from them. What do you think that means?

 

[DoctorSax]

Thank you so much for your response! It is just so difficult for us to gauge whether we stand on the "ranked to match" list (and what that means!)--and we're all enthusiastic about getting our first choice.

While the system is not perfect, hopefully the cosmic flow grooves well for everyone on March 16th.

DS

 

[Jitterbug79]

Maybe your interviewer that was supposed to write one was super busy at that time or forgot. Also, you interviewed very early so maybe they hadn't decided to do that yet. I would not worry about it as the letter I got was pretty standardized with a mini handwritten note on the bottom that promised nothing.

 

[Jitterbug79]

pdintheusa - you are so nice and helpful that I hope I end up in your program, wherever that may be!! I read an earlier post from an applicant that "top tier" programs typically go down about 4 people per spot in the intern class. Is this a pretty good estimate from your experience?

 

[pdintheusa]

Hard to say since again, we don't necessarily talk about it with one another. We had 1 crazy insane year where we went down 2 spots for each slot, last year was a very good year - 4 for each slot, but over the years even 7-9 is not unreasonable.

I am not at MGH, by the way, but I think my experiences are pretty representative for most if not all programs. My close friends that are PD's, I think, also would admit to a range of 4-9 per slot on average.

I would say that this is where the term "Ranked to Match" comes in, depending on that program's experiences. I will only say something strong to the people who are going to be ranked at a number within my total number of positions - e.g., if I have 25 slots, I feel comfortable "talking the talk" to my people positioned #1-25. Again, that's just me - I won't put myself in a position where I could be perceived as dishonest or leading someone on.

Hope that helps! And thanks for the props.

 

[pleasematchme06]

Wow, yes that is very nice and helpful of you, pdintheusa. I really appreciate it...especially since I just discovered this website! (guess i've been under a rock)
I could have had a lot of my questions answered a long time ago!

 

[metastatic dz]

pdintheusa:

if you say on average its 4-9 per slot...that implies that a program that needs say 40 interns is going to rank almost every applicant they interview assuming they interview 300-350 applicants. Is this typical? So, internal medicine truly is a buyer's market? There must be exceptions to this rule...such as MGH, BWH, UCSF, etc

 

[metastatic dz]

on another note...has anyone recieved a thank you note from Cornell or Columbia? just curious

 

[Sierra]

on another note...has anyone recieved a thank you note from Cornell or Columbia? just curious

I got an email from Columbia just after my interview. Email from Penn later on.

 

[pdintheusa]

pdintheusa:

if you say on average its 4-9 per slot...that implies that a program that needs say 40 interns is going to rank almost every applicant they interview assuming they interview 300-350 applicants. Is this typical? So, internal medicine truly is a buyer's market? There must be exceptions to this rule...such as MGH, BWH, UCSF, etc

Again, I'm not at MGH/BWH so I can't speak for them...but my experience as well as experience with close friends who are also PD's [some at community programs, some at some fairly well regarded university programs that pop up here often] yes, many programs rank applicants in the hundreds depending on their number of positions.

Think about it - especially when you look at the unfilled lists for the past 2 years - there are some terrific programs there. Nobody wants to get burned - what harm is there to rank people?

We rank about 90% of who we interview, 10% are not ranked based on a terrible interview or by something that happens after the interview [really poor score or failing a USMLE, usually]. We will rank every candidate we think will make a good intern. Plus, anyone you rank, you get to find out where they end up about a week after the Match, which is always interesting to see.

 

[California]

An e-mail was sent from Harbor-UCLA today encouraging me to strongly consider the program.

 

[Sierra]

Recently got a thank you call from BID.

 

[2359]

Recently got a thank you call from BID.

Sierra, Just curious... how recently did you hear from BID? Was it a recruitment phone call, or just a thank you?

Also, was the email you received from Penn in response to one you wrote or was it unsolicited?

Thanks.