Typed vs Handwritten Thank you notes?

[blahwhatever]

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So I am going to send a Thank you note to all the people I interviewed with, and also the program director. I've been reading on SDN about how people are doing handwritten thank yous. Now are these handwritten thank you cards, or actual letters? Because I haven't seen a hand written letter in a ages, and feel that they might be oudated. I think typed would look more professional. But at the same time, I don't want to step out of whatever that's considered good etiquette.

Also, I was afraid that if I only mail the letters they might get lost in offices and never reach the interviewers, I was thinking of e-mailing the letter to them as well as mailing it to them and stating in my e-mail that I also mailed it. Is this overkill? 'Cause even as I'm typing it it sounds like overkill, but from reading SDN it seems like there are people who have done that.

 

[kryptik]

all the places i have interviewed so far specifically told us to send thank you emails and not traditional mails.

 

[jdh71]

So I am going to send a Thank you note to all the people I interviewed with.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!!!!

Send a thank you to the PD only. Handwrite on nice stationary (show some class), and don't bug the PD again.

(kids these days . . .)

 

[ProgCoordinator]

Please just email and be done with it.

 

[DrVanNostran]

Please just email and be done with it.

Email the PD or PC? I like e-mailing better, I don't want to show off my crap penmanship.

 

[IMdocT]

i would say email, and to the PD. associate PD is OK too, especially if the aPD was the one who interviewed you. the IM PD at our med school told us that these letters don't matter much. some PDs like them but it won't affect your application.

you will sometimes get post-interview emails from the PD as well. you should reply back. i'm not sure how much you should infer from the emails, however, because often times the programs will tell you that they think highly of you but that doesn't necessarily mean they're going to rank you well. sometimes they tell the same thing to everyone they like. applicants are often guilty of the same thing.

 

[ProgCoordinator]

Email the PD or PC? I like e-mailing better, I don't want to show off my crap penmanship.

Email both. It's nice to acknowledge the PC, too.

 

[DrVanNostran]

Email both. It's nice to acknowledge the PC, too.

Nice, thanks. +1 for PCs 😍

 

[oakream]

Is there a need to e-mail all the faculty members we interviewed with, especially if they're not program directors or associate PDs? I feel like it's courtesy to send them a thank you but if we didn't talk about anything memorable, I'm basically just copy-pasting the email I send to the PD saying what I liked about the program. I also feel like the interviewers will just forward the emails to the program director to put in my file, so they end up with multiple versions of similar emails.

 

[adagio]

Nice, thanks. +1 for PCs

Ditto 🙂

 

[texasguy]

Is there a need to e-mail all the faculty members we interviewed with, especially if they're not program directors or associate PDs? I feel like it's courtesy to send them a thank you but if we didn't talk about anything memorable, I'm basically just copy-pasting the email I send to the PD saying what I liked about the program. I also feel like the interviewers will just forward the emails to the program director to put in my file, so they end up with multiple versions of similar emails.

are you guys really driven only by what's best for your 'application'? these people are extremely busy, have plenty of other obligations, and really don't care if you send them a thank you note because their evaluations have been turned in within minutes of your interview. i would hope you would want to sincerely thank them... not just to get you a check mark on your application...i'm good friends with enough chiefs who have been involved with the application process to tell you that 99% of the time neither thank you notes to PDs, PCs, or interviewees will really change anything on where they rank you...