Thank you letters

Started by Medstudentquest
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Medstudentquest

Medstudentquest

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Hi all,

I had a question I was hoping someone could help me out with. So I want to send thank you letters to residency programs I interviewed at. Do I send them via email or paper? Also do I send the same letter/email to all the people who interviewed me, or just to the PD's? Any thoughts would be appreciated.
 
Medstudentquest said:
Hi all,

I had a question I was hoping someone could help me out with. So I want to send thank you letters to residency programs I interviewed at. Do I send them via email or paper? Also do I send the same letter/email to all the people who interviewed me, or just to the PD's? Any thoughts would be appreciated.
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I was advised to send handwritten thank you notes, because it shows a bit more effort than rapid-fire emails. That being said, I had a few PD's specifically say to skip the snail mail and email, and for them I obliged. Initially, I would write an individual note to each interviewer with an individualized message based on our specific interview discussion. I was concerned they would all share them at a meeting and wanted to be sure each note was unique. Toward the end, I ended up addressing just the PD.

The only emails I sent (besides to the 1 PD that said no snail mail), were questions to the residents and a final expression of interest/ranking you highly email to the PD at my top programs.
 
MedObsession said:
I was advised to send handwritten thank you notes, because it shows a bit more effort than rapid-fire emails. That being said, I had a few PD's specifically say to skip the snail mail and email, and for them I obliged. Initially, I would write an individual note to each interviewer with an individualized message based on our specific interview discussion. I was concerned they would all share them at a meeting and wanted to be sure each note was unique. Toward the end, I ended up addressing just the PD.

The only emails I sent (besides to the 1 PD that said no snail mail), were questions to the residents and a final expression of interest/ranking you highly email to the PD at my top programs.
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Thanks for your response! So from what you say, I should send just a hand written thank you note to basically everyone who interviewed me, and it should be individualized. I also have the fear that some faculty might compare the note and be concerned that it's the exact same thing, so I'll make it personal. Also, is it bad if it's been a while since I interviewed there? I've been so busy that I am just now having a chance to sit down and take care of this. Some of the programs that interest me the most I have more recently interviewed at, so I think that should be ok right? Also, one more question. For the program that I am thinking of ranking first, should I tell the PD that I'm planning on ranking it first and expressing my interest in going there? Or is that considered distasteful somehow?
 
Medstudentquest said:
Thanks for your response! So from what you say, I should send just a hand written thank you note to basically everyone who interviewed me, and it should be individualized. I also have the fear that some faculty might compare the note and be concerned that it's the exact same thing, so I'll make it personal. Also, is it bad if it's been a while since I interviewed there? I've been so busy that I am just now having a chance to sit down and take care of this. Some of the programs that interest me the most I have more recently interviewed at, so I think that should be ok right? Also, one more question. For the program that I am thinking of ranking first, should I tell the PD that I'm planning on ranking it first and expressing my interest in going there? Or is that considered distasteful somehow?
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I have attended rank meetings for 14 years and no one has ever compared thank you notes. They are a polite nod to convention, but generally not that important. If a program has told you that email is OK, definitely use email. If you aren't sure, ask the Coordinator.

It is perfectly OK to write something along the lines of "Now that I have completed my interviews, I wanted to thank you for the opportunity to visit your program on (whatever date)..."

It is perfectly OK to tell your #1 program that you intend to rank them first. You can even still change your mind later. No decision is final until you certify your ROL, and there are no professional repercussions down the line. PDs are used to last minute changes of heart--sometimes that benefit them, and sometimes that benefit another program. If you only want to tell one program they are your first choice, you can tell the others that you "intend to rank them highly" or "give them strong consideration." There's no benefit to telling a program anything else.
 
mcl said:
I have attended rank meetings for 14 years and no one has ever compared thank you notes. They are a polite nod to convention, but generally not that important. If a program has told you that email is OK, definitely use email. If you aren't sure, ask the Coordinator.

It is perfectly OK to write something along the lines of "Now that I have completed my interviews, I wanted to thank you for the opportunity to visit your program on (whatever date)..."

It is perfectly OK to tell your #1 program that you intend to rank them first. You can even still change your mind later. No decision is final until you certify your ROL, and there are no professional repercussions down the line. PDs are used to last minute changes of heart--sometimes that benefit them, and sometimes that benefit another program. If you only want to tell one program they are your first choice, you can tell the others that you "intend to rank them highly" or "give them strong consideration." There's no benefit to telling a program anything else.
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Thank you, that helps!
 
MCL,

Since you have participated in ranking meetings for 14 years, how do the thank you notes/letters, emails to residents, and letters of intent play in the ranking?
 
Babycatcher2B said:
MCL,

Since you have participated in ranking meetings for 14 years, how do the thank you notes/letters, emails to residents, and letters of intent play in the ranking?
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It's going to vary by program, I'm afraid. Some programs are very stoic and go with a "first impressions" philosophy. However they feel about you after your interview day is what they are going with and they don't believe in contacting applicants afterward, offering 2nd looks, or changing their ROL according to an applicant's apparent interest. This used to be our program's philosophy, and we would tell applicants to not expect to hear feedback from us.

Then came the year we didn't fill in the Match and everything changed. We sent a questionnaire to all of the applicants on our ROL who didn't come to our program (since any of them would have if they had ranked us first) and asked about their perception of our program. Somewhat comforting, I guess, the results indicated that we were a lot of applicant's second choice (although they may have just been saying that). Enough people responded that they might have ranked us higher if they'd felt some indication of our interest level that we made a 180° turn from the "tell them nothing" philosophy. We now pay a lot of attention to applicants who respond past the thank you notes (which really mean nothing to us) and make the effort to call or email the PD, residents, or Coordinator.

To clarify, contact will not move someone in the middle or bottom of the list to the top at our program. If something happened during the interview day that raised a red flag with residents, interviewers, or coordinator there's not much that can move an applicant up. But even vague expressions of interest (as opposed to utter silence) can cause us to alter our list within the top 15 or so applicants. Do these slight movements affect the outcome of who we get in the Match? I doubt it. I really think it's just our program's coping mechanism in dealing with the stress of the Match.

Just as applicants tend to believe that programs are telling all of the candidates "I can't wait to work with you in July," the programs believe that applicants are telling every program where they interviewed "You are my number one choice."
 
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