update/ interest letter/ freaking out

[chemphd]

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Here's the situation.

As you may or may not know, I have a certain dream school.

The day I was at the interview I felt really good about things. In the month-plus since then, I have been freaking out about the interview. Specifics include: Was I too negative about my current department in grad school (I said in the context of a conversation about diversity that the old guard in my dept. wants a bunch of people who look like them and talk like them, and it's not conducive to this where I currently am)? The interviewer interrupted me, so I never got to give my spiel on why dream school is the neatest thing since sliced bread and how I would be a fantastic fit. etc. etc. (Probably unwarranted freaking out).

This is getting long winded, so I'll get to the point. They take update/ interest letters. So- I'm going to update them next week when I submit a paper (yay!) and I was considering adding to that letter a bit of the spiel I never got out on interview day. Are there suggestions on how to go about this? Would this be appropriate (or annoying)? (there I go, obsessing again🙄)

Thanks🙂

 

[Phoenix.]

Yup, I think you're suffering from an unwarranted (but natural) post-interview-at-dream-school freakout. Don't sweat the details of your interview. What's done is done, and I'm SURE you're blowing little things out of proportion that the interviewer probably didn't give a hoot about.

I think that it's a great idea if there was nowhere in the secondary to write about why you love their school so much and why you'd be a great fit, AND given that you didn't get the opportunity to address that at the interview. I would consolidate it into your update letter. I guess I would try to start off by saying how I wanted to update them on X, and if at all possible, try to tie that into something I saw or learned about the school during the interview day. Then I'd mention other things that I thought were amazing, and conclude by explaining how I'd be a great fit. I wouldn't write more than one page though.

 

[chemphd]

Good to know it's natural to have post-dream-school-interview-freakout. It makes me feel a bit better. I'll work on putting that letter together so I can send it the second my update (submitting a paper next week) is complete.

Thanks Phoenix!