Thank-you notes

[neurotiger]

Okay...I know this topic has been posted in the pre-allo forum but I was just curious as to what other MSTP-ers have done. I think I'm going to send thank-you notes to the directors who I've met with at interviews, but what about all of the faculty members (~8 at each place + med. school faculty) who I talked to? This sounds like a lot, and a little redundant...

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[Treg]

On a similar note, I have seen that some people give small thank-you gifts to referees. What do you guys think, seeing that most of us (I think) have a lot of contact with our supevisors, etc. compared to the avg. joe who gets a prof from a class to write?

I was thinking of a $10 starbucks certificate + mug, with a small note about recovering from the irritation of letter writing.

Dumb idea? Or nice?

 

[Fritz]

I was thinking about the thank you notes myself, but it seems so redundant.
I don't know what to do. Should I write them, should I not write them?

 

[BandGeek]

Good manners never look bad in my opinion. I am planning on sending one to the committee. As far as my recommenders go, my parents are hosting a huge reception at the end of the year and they will all get to eat, drink, and be merry over me finally blowing out of town. At X-mas I will probably bake something as well.....depends on finals.

 

[Habari]

i sent out a limited # of thank you e-mails to people whom i enjoyed talking with, and always got a response which was nice [unlike a note]. unless you have lots of freetime, writing thankyou notes to everyone is too much; and writing 1 to the committee is rather subtext ridden and impersonal. i'm sure you don't really want to thank every person you interviewed with [i certainly didn't]; so do what makes sense.

 

[Neuronix]

Like jot, I only wrote a couple thank you notes by e-mail to those people who I felt I had a reason to thank. I still think sending thank you notes to your interviewers or to the committee is at best unnecessary and at worst overkill. Of coruse if you want to update your file with new information, you could tag a little thanks in with that. Now on the other hand, you should give your student hosts at least a thank you note if not a gift or a round at a bar or whatever. These people are probably doing more work on your behalf, but don't have any say in your admissions process.

 

[strangeattractor]

well, i definitely wouldn't buy them something. i don't have money for that. plus, it's a little kiss-a$$.

i'm writing letters right now - to express my interest in the school and thanks that they did interview me. and to address little things that we might have talked about - like faculty members that might be of interest...

maybe it's just my opinion but i think that writing a short thank you letter is common courtesy...if one writes it out of sincerity, it shouldn't come across as heavy-handed or useless.

 

[Neuronix]

I don't recommend buying things for faculty. What I meant there was that I think most student hosts deserve more than most interviewers, and yet they are very often overlooked.

 

[strangeattractor]

good point.