Are ppl sending thank you letters after your interviews? If so, are you sending them as email or actual letters? Did you address them to all the interviewers or just the program director?
Thanx
Thanx
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Thank You Letters
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They're certainly not necessary or even expected. Write them if you want, but I usually glance at the thank you letters and think "Who was this?" then drop them into the round file.
It sort of seems like a waste of paper and postage. But what do I know?
It sort of seems like a waste of paper and postage. But what do I know?
If you are going to send any notes, the program director (and maybe the chairman if you had a good conversation) would suffice.
I think it's good etiquette to send a thank you note. I've been sending a letter in the mail to the PD (but no one else that interviewed me) within one week of each interview. However, if I interview at a place I am definitely not going to rank, I'm not going to bother.
It is a common courtesy to send a thank-you. Maybe not everyone, but the PD, the Chair (if interviewed) and possibly the Program Coordinator, especially if he/she has been helpful to you. In discussing applicants, we actually do take note of these as an indication the applicant has some interest in the program. For otherwise comparable candidates, that could be the difference between a higher or lower position on the rank order list.
That's a good point I think - some program coordinators do a really good job and there were a few I made sure to thank - they can make the interview day go very smoothly and some have a lot of influence.
I was ambitious and intended to send Thank You notes to multiple people, which was ultimately overwhelming and left me sending out very very few. So yeah, I recommend to keep it simple (one or two people). Here, if someone sends a Thank You note to the PD and thanks multiple people (residents, etc) they'll sometimes scan it in and email it to us.
DBH
I have been emailing the thank you letters to the PDs and everyone I interviewed with. Is this an acceptable alternative or will they be offended for me not sending a physical letter? Thank You.
I sent an actual thank you letter to the program directors of my top 3 programs after I finished interviewing. I basically said thank you for the interview, and that I was really interested in attending their program and was ranking them highly. No other thank you letters were sent, but I was pretty confident that I was going to get into one of my top 3.
Of the applicants I've seen over the past few years, the ones we remember and that get ranked highly are the ones that are friendly, outgoing, confident but humble, and have great board scores. Nobody cares if these people send thank you letters.
Bottom line, thank you letters have little to no influence on how you're ranked. Send them however you like.
