Thank you notes - email or snailmail?

[hoshwa]

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Is it now acceptable to write thank you emails or is it better to write handwritten notes and send them through the mail. Discuss:

 

[Neuronix]

Handwritten, customized notes are definately preferable IMO. So few applicants take the time and effort to do that that in my opinion it really stands out. An e-mail thank you letter really means pretty much nothing, IMO.

 

[Sinfekl]

Handwritten, customized notes are definately preferable IMO. So few applicants take the time and effort to do that that in my opinion it really stands out. An e-mail thank you letter really means pretty much nothing, IMO.

I disagree slightly. I think the content overshadows the medium. If you actually mention what you discussed and take the time to write a thoughtful email that highlights some of your qualities, it can go a long towards both a favorable impression of you and helping the committee member remember you. I think thats more important than hand-writing it; furthermore, I don't think the added effort of a letter is worth it.

And remember, many of these committees meet relatively soon after the interview date, and its nice to have the thank you note come in right away after the meeting.

 

[OncDoc19]

I plan to hand write my notes. Here's an idea: take your cards with you and write notes while you are there. For example, back at the hotel between nights or during the time after your interview but before you fly out. Then you can drop them in the mail in that city and they will get there in a couple of days. This avoids being late for the committee meetings.

 

[Neuronix]

take the time to write a thoughtful email that highlights some of your qualities, it can go a long towards both a favorable impression of you and helping the committee member remember you.

So what is the point of a thank you letter again?

When I get this kind of thank you that says "thanks for interviewing me, now let me spend a page telling you why I'm cool" (about half fall into this catagory) I'm rather unhappy with that applicant. I already interviewed you, I already have your application, stop pretending you're thanking me.

This only began to make me unhappy after I began student hosting. As a student host I put in farrrr more time and effort per person than when I interview. This is very obviously apparent to the people I host I'm sure. Do I ever get thanks from the people I host? Rarely. Do I get thank you letters from everyone I interview? Yes. So again, what's the point of that "thank you" again? If it's a fake thank you, I'd like to knock points off.

Anyone who goes through the trouble of hand-writing a note and sending it to me, even if it's a long note, gets kudos in my book. I've interviewed dozens of people and only one person has ever actually done it.

 

[chylo]

Neuronix, I can't believe people you hosted wouldn't send you thank you notes!

I'm not planning on staying w/student hosts (yet) because the schools I'm interviewing at are paying for the hotel.

But if I do stay with a student host, I feel like I should bring them something. What's the proper etiquette there? I'd be afraid to bring them something & have it look like I was just trying to bribe them into saying good things about me to the admissions people.

 

[Neuronix]

Neuronix, I can't believe people you hosted wouldn't send you thank you notes!

I noticed I started getting more over the years as more and more people I hosted saw me posting about this 😉

But if I do stay with a student host, I feel like I should bring them something. What's the proper etiquette there? I'd be afraid to bring them something & have it look like I was just trying to bribe them into saying good things about me to the admissions people.

That's very nice of you. Nobody would think that of you. Student hosts don't have any say in admissions unless you are a total nut job.

 

[pkr]

my students hosts were very very amazing. could not have done the weekend without them. i gave them a card and small gifts, which made them very happy. it's definitely not bribing, because they have no power in terms of admissions.

 

[GoinBack2Cali?]

Gifts for you student hosts are highly recommended !! 👍

Thank you notes to your interviewers, not so much. It gets annoying having to open all that extra mail, they do a lot of interviews.

 

[SpeakLittleB]

i didn't send thank you's unless i really enjoyed the interview and wanted to thank them. in those cases, i'm pretty sure (or hope so) that the feeling was mutual, so they would receive the thanks as genuine even though it was just an email.

that said, i didn't thank any interviewers at the schools i was most interested in simply because they weren't spectacularly interesting interviews. i still got in. so don't worry... thank the people that you want to thank because you really want to do it!

 

[CCLCMer]

Handwritten, customized notes are definately preferable IMO. So few applicants take the time and effort to do that that in my opinion it really stands out. An e-mail thank you letter really means pretty much nothing, IMO.

So few applicants bother to write thank yous by any medium. A sincere thankyou by email is infinitely better than nothing at all. But on the other hand, getting handwritten cards is really classy. I also like it when students I hosted got accepted and emailed me to tell me.

Chylo, some of the students I have hosted brought me little gifts. I definitely appreciated it and never felt like they were trying to bribe me or anything. As long as it's a small token gift like a box of chocolates, it isn't much of a bribe, just more of a thoughtful kind of thing to express your appreciation. Your host isn't going to usually have a ton of influence on the adcomm anyway. Well, I guess if you go to their house and start tearing it all apart and acting like a nut job, sure, they'll probably go tell someone. 😛 But usually if I talk to the adcomm about a student I hosted it's a good thing. In other words, a few times, I had someone stay with me who I really liked, and I'd make a point of telling the admissions dean that I thought this person was a good fit for our program.

 

[Neuronix]

So few applicants bother to write thank yous by any medium.

That wasn't my experience actually. I used to interview MD students and so I did a few dozen such interviews in my first few years here. I don't have tight statistics of course because I didn't keep track and it's been awhile but as I recall...

I would say I received a thank you letter from close to 100% of those I interviewed. In my first year these were almost all printed letters addressed to the office that ended up in my mailbox. After that I started giving out my e-mail addresses to the people I would interview and I started getting e-mail thank yous instead. The vast majority of the time they were generic enough that I assume they simply changed it to my name and UPenn on the letter and sent it. The content usually looked like as follows:

"Hi my name is so and so, thank you for interviewing me, now I will spend the next page telling you about why you should accept me. btw, I liked something really generic about your school."

This is the kind of thank you I am railing against in this thread.

Personally I never sent thank you letters. Actually, I did once, and it was after I was already accepted. I think a thank you at the end of the interview is sufficient.

 

[meowkat444]

Wow, I find that somewhat depressing. I did write some thank yous for my interviews the last few days, but I didn't think to include anything about why I should get in. My interviews were genuinely fun, actually, and faculty and students were very welcoming--one even insisted that I borrow her umbrella (stupid LA resident, didn't occur to me that it rains in other parts of the US). Something about selling yourself in a thank you seems very cheap and insincere. I don't like what this process makes people do.

If thank yous are generally not seen as genuine, then I may not bother. Or maybe I will wait and write them after the committee has met/they have given my feedback/I have gotten a decision.

 

[Sinfekl]

This is the kind of thank you I am railing against in this thread.

You kind of dismissed my post without really reading it, and purposefully constructed a straw man to rail against. I don't think anyone suggested a page of self-congratulations was a good idea. However, I think mentioning some of the things that were talked about in the interview is great, and if you can find a way to highlight your talents without sounding like a jerk, by all means go ahead. Reminding the interviewer of the interview (especially as they probably did a few on your day) is IMHO a much more important aspect of a letter than the bonus points you get by putting it in a pretty envelope. An email, to me, accomplishes this with much, much less effort.

You also haven't addressed the fact that many committees do meet quite quickly, and its difficult to get letters out in time, particularly as you're usually behind on work from school.

For the student host, fine, send a letter, they didn't have to do that and they do deserve a thank you.

 

[Neuronix]

You kind of dismissed my post without really reading it, and purposefully constructed a straw man to rail against.

No, I read your post just fine. The "straw man" I constructed is quite real.

An email, to me, accomplishes this with much, much less effort.

I think you missed my point. Or you have an entirely different point. My point is that a thank you letter should send thanks. Yours is that it should boost your application by reminding your interviewer of yourself and getting it there before the committee meets.

Again, what is the point of a "thank you" letter if the only reason you're sending it is to boost your app? Maybe we should rename thank you letters entirely, because "thank you" doesn't sound like the point at all. If you want to send thanks, the most heartfelt way to do so is to put it in hand written writing. If your point is to try to give your application a bonus... Well send whatever you like. I already gave you my opinion as an interviewer, but opinions are going to vary.

 

[Sinfekl]

Again, what is the point of a "thank you" letter if the only reason you're sending it is to boost your app? Maybe we should rename thank you letters entirely, because "thank you" doesn't sound like the point at all. If you want to send thanks, the most heartfelt way to do so is to put it in hand written writing.

Fair enough. I think the point of the letter, obviously, is to accomplish both. You're making me seem like some sort of conniving self-promoter, but let's be honest, its interview season, and one of the points of the letter is to help yourself out. Anyone who sends letters entirely out of gratitude and thankfulness is a better man than I, my friend.

Again, the hosts deserve thanks because they volunteered to do it, particularly if they did a good job. However, I never understood the idea of grovelling before faculty for doing their job. Teaching is at least 1/3 of their job description, they should be spending time interviewing you. A simple post-interview thank you seems enough for that, as you mentioned earlier, neuronix.