thanking interviewers - email vs. handwritten

[No Egrets]

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Have you been thanking your interviewers by e-mail, or with handwritten notes sent snail mail? If you haven't interviewed yet, which do you plan to do?

 

[Auricae]

Wait, is it standard practice to thank your interviewer? Before or after acceptance? I've never heard of this...

 

[No Egrets]

i was under the impression that it was pretty standard procedure to thank anyone who interviews you after the interview (grad school, jobs, etc). give you a chance to refresh their memory of your conversation and express continued interest in the school... am i alone on this?? i am pretty sure i've read junk about this in the pre-med literature (ie kaplan handbook that came with my MCAT course materials) .

 

[Kashue]

Originally posted by No Egrets
Have you been thanking your interviewers by e-mail, or with handwritten notes sent snail mail? If you haven't interviewed yet, which do you plan to do?

I was planning on Snail mail, then I'm like, screw it and I'm tired of wasting money on cards and stamps. I'm just emailing the interviewers I liked and got along with. I think the act of thanking ithem s more then enough. Where is the thanks for the interviewee who dragged his ass through god knows what and paid $$$ just so he could be asked whether he would give a 14 year Vietnamese girl an abortion.

 

[womanpedortho]

I would defintely handwrite the thank you cards. Either way is very essential. It shows you are still interested and puts your name back in their face. By handwriting, you take the time and a little more effort to show your appreciation. Besides, people (most) like to get mail..why do we go to the mail box everyday (do you really look forward to the bills and junk mail? )

 

[nuclearrabbit77]

i don't believe writing a letter is advantageous, but NOT writing a letter could be disadvantageous. "if everyone else is doing it, why aren't you?"

i think it would be advantagous to use snail mail for the following reasoning.
your "snail mail" letter will be put into your giant application file. upon reviewing, this will be in there, which could theoretically make a difference.

your email sent to the interviewers will probably be most likely deleted, not printed out, nor entered in the application file.

in addition, often times the interviewer may simply score your interview and not have any bearing (besides the original score) on the committee's decision.
however, a "snail mail" would be in the file, and available for review by the committee.

either way, a letter probably isn't going to sell the deal.

sending them ben franklins and naked pictures may be more effective.---or at least entertaining.

 

[ewing]

Naked pictures of Ben Franklin would probably only work at Penn...and even there its not a sure bet. Just my $.02.

 

[woolie]

I interviewed and was accepted at a school pretty quick. I wrote the thank you card on the 6th day after I interviewed, and it probably didn't get across the country until the early part of the next week.

So, basically, the card got there long after the decision had been made. I think handwritten cards are important if you liked the interviewers and the school, and want to leave a personal touch. My interviewer was older and pretty old fashioned so I figured she would like something formal. The student interviewer was a pretty cool dude, overworked and tired so I was happy to send a friendly note to thank him for his time - which I appreciated.

Life is made up of personal touches like this, and while it didn't 'get' me in, I felt good doing it and I would imagine that the recipients may have appreciated receiving them.

 

[Auricae]

Strange, I had no idea this was standard. I have not thanked any of my interviewers, but I have still gotten accepted. I almost feel that sending them a thank you note would seem like a lame way of sucking up?

 

[NYCheartlMD]

It depends what your priority in life is. I really value good manners and politeness. This is really important not just my personal, but also my professional life. Sending a thank you note reflects this quality of mine.

 

[efex101]

Guys why are you all so bent with the thank you notes? you really do *not* have to do this...I never wrote any and received acceptances so sure if you really really really really liked the interview school do it, but do not do it just because you think everyone else is. These people interview hundreds of wannabe's do you not think that they are aware of the smoke blowing technique?

 

[snowbear]

At all of the schools I interviewed at, they said thank you letters would not be kept in your file. Also, at UCSF, they said PLEASE don't send Thank You letters.

 

[asama527]

I think the best option is email (within 24 hours) or handwritten, if you can get it to them within a day. Some places make decisions very quickly and I don't think there's much use in sending something by snailmail that's going to arrive after the adcom has started the post-interview evaluation on your application.

 

[femdoc]

Do you guys send thank-you's to job interviewers, too? Your interviewers are probably not the ones that decided to invite you in the first place--the people that recommended me for an interview, they're the ones I would be thanking! the interviewers are just doing their job. Now thanking them for recommending for acceptance? That certainly warrants a "thank you" at the least! I have, however, given thank-you gifts/notes to my LOR writers. I doubt that I'll be sending them to the people that interview me. Gosh, from the funeral suit to thank-you notes, who comes up with all of this, and why do so many of you buy into it??? What's next?

 

[rackd8ball]

people have gotten rejected from our school for not writing thank you letters, because it shows disinterest and a lack of respect.

you've been through the entire process and have already spent so much time and effort interviewing, so why not take the time to handwrite a letter?

 

[Adapt]

You should add type-written thank you notes in that poll. For all my interviews, I sent a computer written business like thank you letter. I think it helped me. Why wouldn't you. It could only help.

 

[snowbear]

Originally posted by rackd8ball
people have gotten rejected from our school for not writing thank you letters, because it shows disinterest and a lack of respect.

you've been through the entire process and have already spent so much time and effort interviewing, so why not take the time to handwrite a letter?

Are you on the adcom at a particular school? How do you know that? For all but one of my interviews, the adcom emphasized that it was really not neccesary to send thank yous. They made it sound like it was an inconveniance to them, but they didn't want to flat out say, don't send thank you notes. Why would these adcoms go out of their way to emphasize this, if you could get rejected for not sending one--they are not playing mind games on us.

Additionally, these thank you notes do not go in our files. That means they are not factored into our decisions. C'mon you guys, you think after all we have been through, a thank you letter is going to determine whether or not we are accepted, that is the most ludicrous thing I have ever heard. Automatically sending a thank you letter, independent of your actual experience at the school, does not show disinterest and a lack of respect, it shows kissing *ss. If you truly had a great time, address your letter to the entire adcom, as the committee as a whole was responsible for your great day, not just the interviewers

 

[BushBaby]

I always write thank-you letters, but in my case it's more of a "kiss ass" letter to butter them up about how much I enjoyed the interview and blah blah blah.

I always snail mail just to have a more personal effect and incase they want to drop it into my file so they can better advocate for me when they meet with the committee, at least they can have something nice to remember about me.

I don't think it will make or break my application but at this point, it's just second nature for me to have a thank-you letter ready to go out after an interview.

 

[OSUdoc08]

I've been told by med schools, admissions committees, students, professors, etc., that thank you letters don't help and aren't necessary. Why bother? Most of them don't even get ready anyway!

 

[asama527]

Originally posted by BUmedic
I've been told by med schools, admissions committees, students, professors, etc., that thank you letters don't help and aren't necessary. Why bother? Most of them don't even get ready anyway!

You might be right about handwritten letters. However, I have received responses from pretty much all of the interviewers I sent thank-you notes to. I think what's absolutely CRUCIAL is that you send them within hours (24 hours max) after the interview, which in most cases means by email.

 

[rackd8ball]

Originally posted by snowbear
Are you on the adcom at a particular school? How do you know that? For all but one of my interviews, the adcom emphasized that it was really not neccesary to send thank yous. They made it sound like it was an inconveniance to them, but they didn't want to flat out say, don't send thank you notes. Why would these adcoms go out of their way to emphasize this, if you could get rejected for not sending one--they are not playing mind games on us.

Additionally, these thank you notes do not go in our files. That means they are not factored into our decisions. C'mon you guys, you think after all we have been through, a thank you letter is going to determine whether or not we are accepted, that is the most ludicrous thing I have ever heard. Automatically sending a thank you letter, independent of your actual experience at the school, does not show disinterest and a lack of respect, it shows kissing *ss. If you truly had a great time, address your letter to the entire adcom, as the committee as a whole was responsible for your great day, not just the interviewers

This is just something i heard from our premed advisor, who is drawing upon anecdotes from his 20+ years of experience with our univeristy and our students. One kid who was very qualified got rejected simply because he did not write a thank you letter or send anything after the interviews.

Plus, I also know that some schools, such as Columbia, do put your thank you notes in the file. Many of these letters express continued interest in the school, which goes into the decision making.

In life, sending a thank you card is just plain, standard etiquette. you don't do it because, regardless of what you thought, your interviewer still put time into your interview. you can go ahead and scratch TY cards from your future interviews for jobs, etc, but in the end it's going to hurt you one day.

I'm sure different schools have different policies and thoughts on ty letters. In the end, every school is different. So in the end, writing TY letters probably won't help you, but NOT writing them may.

 

[stwei]

Well, so snailmail may take up to two weeks for delivery.. has anyone been sending thank-you letters before they have headed for his /her interview only to find that the postman delivered it too early? 😱

 

[mikeyboy]

I didn't send a thank you card right away, but I did eventually send an e-mail thanking them, reiterating my interest, and asking how I can get off the waitlist. I'm sure it wouldn't have mattered since they always told me they would write up the report and send it over as soon as possible. I think it's somewhat antiquated since they probably don't have any further input on your acceptance outside of the written report, and I doubt that any interviewer will add "he didn't send me a thank you, how rude!" to your file.

 

[synapse lapse]

I agree that sending TY notes is a standard business practice and a great habit to have throughout life. Networking can get you a lot of places. It is standard practice to send a note on letter head when dealing with professional positions , and hand written or email is ok for LOR writers. Anotehr suggestion I have, something I have heard from and talked to with my Profs/Advisors/Adcoms/Professionals is that it is a great a idea to have a busincess card. This especially comes in handy when you go to conferences and hand them out, or if you give them to any person interviewing you for anything. It is very professional and impressive for a student to have business cards. Oh, and make sure at conferences or wherever to pick up others cards, you never know who you'll meet.

 

[PowderPhan]

The bottom line is that sending out thank you emails is standard business practice. Obviously med schools will look at TY responses differently, and they may very well have no effect upon your chance of acceptance, but they are a sign of proffesionalism and are pretty much standard etiquette in other fields. It'd be good practice for you to send them anyways. Emails to interviewers would generally be fine and often lead into further rounds of exchange. An interviewer sure as hell isn't going to hand write you a response letter, but they may just shoot an email back.

Then again, all my experience is from business.

-pp

 

[Mr. Rosewater]

I agree that sending TY notes is a standard business practice and a great habit to have throughout life. Networking can get you a lot of places. It is standard practice to send a note on letter head when dealing with professional positions , and hand written or email is ok for LOR writers. Anotehr suggestion I have, something I have heard from and talked to with my Profs/Advisors/Adcoms/Professionals is that it is a great a idea to have a busincess card. This especially comes in handy when you go to conferences and hand them out, or if you give them to any person interviewing you for anything. It is very professional and impressive for a student to have business cards. Oh, and make sure at conferences or wherever to pick up others cards, you never know who you'll meet.

i strongly disagree with this. i think a student handing an interviewer a business card that they printed up for themselves (as opposed to one given by their place of employ) would make that student look like a pretentious ass.

 

[Neuronix]

[RANT]

As a student interviewer, I think these "please accept into your school" form letters are annoying and ridiculous. After I'm done interviewing you, I write a little form, and my job is done. Nothing you do after that will have any influence on me. The same goes for your faculty interview. They are not going into your file, at least not here. They might go into a little folder I keep just for the heck of it, or they might go into the circular file.

I get a good number of these snail mails when I interview. They're always written on nice paper, spend one or two sentences thanking me, and then spend the rest of the letter telling me why I should let them into my school. They almost always seem like the same letter has been sent everywhere, except that they changed the name of the med school once or twice. If I could deduct points (and I can't) for these, I would.

That being said, if you want to send me a nice hand-written genuine thank you letter, I'd appreciate it. I have received one of these, and I really liked it. Then again, I felt like that particular applicant was really sweet, genuine, and interesting, and already had a perfect score from me anyways (for whatever that's worth). The ones who send me the form letters are typically the reserved gunners-to-be that don't usually stand out anyway.

PS: PMs from SDNers are fine too.

Now if you want to thank ANYONE, thank your student host. I go out of my way to host applicants, and never do I get anything in return (except newquagmire's cookies). Believe me, I have to go way further out of my way to host, so I'd appreciate a card or a gift or something. It always strikes me as strange that applicants seem to have no problem shelling out all this money for hotel rooms, like they don't want to inconvenience anyone, but spending 1/4 the amount and taking your host to dinner is a foreign concept.

[/RANT]

BTW, I only sent one thank you e-mail during my time interviewing and that was after I was already accepted. I think I did pretty well in the game.

 

[skiz knot]

people have gotten rejected from our school for not writing thank you letters, because it shows disinterest and a lack of respect.

Bull Shizzle, bizzle

 

[Trekkie963]

I wrote thank-you letters for all of my interviewers, and definitely from the mindset that it was courtesy, not a final effort to influence their decision. At one school, my interviewer flat out told me that if I was interested in the school, it was important to write a letter to him or to the admissions committee, so when I sent him a thank you note I did let him know that I remained very interested in the school. My thank you note and the acceptance letter were like two ships passing in the night...

Obviously the thank you letter didn't make a difference in the admissions decision, but does every thing a pre-med does have to be motivated by that?

At several schools, my interviewer told me that anything they receive in the mail will be placed in the applicant's file, so this should include thank you notes, too. Of course, this seems to vary by school. I don't really see any reason not to send at least a thank you e-mail to your interviewer. He or she took time out of their day (and for many med school interviewers, this is not "just doing their jobs"), and most of my interviewers were very friendly and helpful. I appreciate what they did, so I'd might as well let them know.

 

[stwei]

Boy this thread is real good.. I'd never bring myself to ask the interviewer whether he/she wants a thank you note. It would just sound too crude and insincere. I did however, ask a taxi driver once how much I should tip when I felt his pressuring eager anticipation as I was getting out of the car, and he was all cool about it. 😉

 

[TheRussian]

I sent typewritten letters to all my interviewers except for one school (I got rejected pretty quickly from that school for what its worth). I never used the letter to beg for a spot and always made them short and sweet. One sentence thanking them for taking the time to interview me, one sentence reminding them of one or two most interesting parts of the interview, and one sentence expressing my desire to go to the school. Maybe they didn't stand out from the rest of them but who cares, it's just a formality and something that should become second nature.

At a number of schools that I interviewed I recieved instructions on how to go about sending thank you letters, without anyone first asking. At schools like that I think that the interviewers will expect thank you letters and it might hurt you if you don't send one.

Also keep in mind that the interview evaluations are different depending on the school. At some schools your interviewer will simply fill out a form and submit it to the committee. At these schools a thank you letter is probably not necessary (though I sent one anyway). At other schools, however, you interview with a committee member and they will be responsible for advocating with you at the meetings. In that case a thank you letter may actually help you.

 

[thewebthsp]

It's a standard polite social practice, that by itself won't do anything, but take together with other small things can result in leaving a good impression, which will be the "intangible" factor that helps you get the next job, residency slot, etc etc. Also for each letter I'd try to say something specific about the school (for all 20+ letters I wrote). If I didn't like the interview (rare) I'd just write two sentences thanking my interviewer for their time.