Thank you letters

[Pinky]

Who do you write thank you letters to after you've interviewed?

Some say that you need to write thank you letters to everyone who interviewed you. Others say that you only need to write letters to the chairman and the residency program director. Some say that it makes no difference either way.

Comments? Opinions?

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[pags]

I hand wrote a thank you card to the Chairman of the program, with inclusion of the entire department in the, "Dear, so and so" greeting. I personally think it's a bit much to send letters to each interveiwer. Most likely, your thank you letter is going to end up in your file, and I highly doubt the file with the most thank you notes will change that candidate's ranking. Good luck!

 

[Moony]

Is it ok to send thank you emails instead of letters.This is what I am doing .
Any comments anyone?

 

[Freeeedom!]

My thank you letters are entitled

"To everyone involved during interview day,

Thank you so much for the great impression you made upon me..."

 

[midwest girl]

Originally posted by Moony:
•Is it ok to send thank you emails instead of letters.This is what I am doing .
Any comments anyone?•

I have talked with three residency directors regarding this -- they have all stated that an email thank you note is not formal enough. If you want to send an email, that is fine, but maybe you should send a snail mail as well.
Food for thought...

 

[RBorhani]

I sent a thank you letter to anyone that was involved in my interview. This included the program coordinator and the residents that interviewed me/ gave me a tour/ or took me out to dinner. This meant that I had to send 6-7 thank you letters for each program that interviewed at.

Realize that most programs will have a meeting at the end of the interview season and the residents, attendings, and the program director will go over each applicant that they interviewed and decide together where to place them on the rank list. Although the ultimate decision is by the program director, everyone in that meeting has a very strong say in where the applicants will end up on the rank list. Definitely, if your grades, letters of recs, board scores, and deans letter make your application weak then a thank you letter is not going to make that much of a difference. But if you got the interview that usually means that you are a strong candidate and the more people remember you in a positive fashion the better your chances. This includes the residents and attending that you talk to during your interview tour or during your lunch and or dinner with them.

I would stay away from email thank you letters. An email thank you letter might come across as you did not want to put in the effort to send a thank you letter and just wanted to get it over it.

Emails are great for post interview questions. I strongly encourage you to use it for that purpose. This will allow you to make a wise decision about a program and will let the program know that you are serious about them.

 

[Moony]

Thanks Midwestgirl and RBorhani for getting this straight for me.I have already made the mistake of sending thankyou emails to my 1st 4 interviews but will send letters in future.
One other thing is I am not working anywhere right now and not a student( I am an independent applicant) so I dont have any formal letterhead.Now this may sound like a dumb question but can I just type a letter on Word, print it and send it?

RBorhani-I too thought of writing to everyone I met but then I had trouble individualizing the notes and it seemed like I would be writing the same lines to everyone and that looked weird so...still confused about this issue.

 

[RBorhani]

It would be unreasonable to expect that you will be sending 6 or 7 completely different thank you letters for each interview that you go to.

I sent the same thank you letter to all the people that interviewed me at a particular program. I did include a paragraph, however, that was particular to the person that interviewed me...i.e. a question or subject that we discussed etc....for example "thank you for taking me out to dinner I ejoyed our conversation on ....", "thank you for discussing your programs commitment to EMS with me", etc.. etc..

Using MS Word is just fine.. In fact if a med student sends a letter on an official letterhead, it might come across as being a bit pretentious.

RB

 

[pags]

I'm handwriting blank thank you cards. I find it a nice personal touch, don't you think?

 

[Djanaba]

Yes, I think it's the best way to go, personally. Shows you're willing to sit down and take the time to make things right.