Thanks you notes after inteviews

Can anyone tell me the protocol for Thank You notes following interviews? When do they need to be sent, the format for the note, the formality/informality, handwritten (mine is pretty bad) or typed, etc.
Thanks,
Alison

Never sent any nine acceptances…I do not think that you “have” to and with so many folks that are interviewed I do not think that a lot of emphasis is placed on this…

If you want to, thank you notes can be sent to an individual interviewer c/o the admissions office. If the office has their stuff together, the interviewer will get the note. And a copy of the note is put in your file.
I didn’t send thank you notes. Maybe that’s why I got wait-listed initially j/k I agree with efex, I don’t think TY’s really make a difference, but certainly they don’t hurt.
Note my comment that a copy goes in your file. If you say something in your note like “You helped me see that Enormous State University would be a terrific fit for me,” that will be noted.
Of course you can also express particular interest in a school, or pursue follow-up questions, in calls or notes to the admissions office.
Mary

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Note my comment that a copy goes in your file. If you say something in your note like “You helped me see that Enormous State University would be a terrific fit for me,” that will be noted.


Mary, where does one draw the line between a sincere, meaningful followup and bald-faced brown nosing? Aren’t they going to sort of roll their eyes when they see this kind of thing? If I were on an admissions committee, I’d be much more impressed by an applicant who wrote: “I greatly appreciate your helping me to realize that I’d be much happier at Private Unaffordable University instead.” (half kidding but you get the idea)
When it comes down to selecting from, say, 10 or fifteen candidates for the remaining three seats, are they really going to take this kind of fluff into consideration?
Cheers, (why am I smiling? I’ve got a biology exam Monday!!!)

From talking with various adcoms this type of fluff will not make you or brake you.

I sent notes when I meant it. I think that the world would be a better place with more thank-you notes.





I wrote a long thank-you email to a student interviewer with a lengthy account of the brunch I’d had at this crazy NYC brunch place–we had talked about restaurants, and I told her I was going and would tell her how it was. I think she thought I was kind of wacky–I ran into her in a hospital up in Boston a year later and she still remembered. I still got accepted–but I think it was via the quirky file. Probably you want to hold back on that sort of thing. But I think it was also a genuine reflection of the connection I felt to that particular interviewer–who was a bit quirky-file-ish herself–and I think an abbreviated version of the same would have been nice.





True, it’s a bit brown-nosy–but it’s also polite, and there’s nothing wrong with that.





cheers


joe





ps–in re: format–emailed to some, like this student; handwritten cards with nice biology-ish photos on the fronts, in envelopes, to the others.

Ugh, I’m starting to wonder if the thank you’s I’ve been sending have been kosher. I sent one to my interviewer from a school in New York, where I referred back to a joking question he asked me about Minnesota lore, which I couldn’t answer at the time. What I wrote in the thank you was clearly meant to be light hearted, and I have no doubt that my actual interviewer will get it. But if it goes in my file no one else is going to get the joke. I’m probably doomed. Also, for most of my thank you notes I’ve used little cards purchased at Walgreens–nothing flowery or involving swirly type, but definitely generic and bland.
The dry-ness of this process is difficult to adhere to on a day to day basis. I feel a definite need to resort to some form of self-help/support-group just to get through it.

DON’T WORRY. Unless you were to say something egregiously, blatantly, grotesquely out of line in a thank you note (“I guess I wasn’t clear enough, because I really WOULD have gone to bed with you in order to be sure of an acceptance at your school”), no one is going to try to parse its layers of meaning.
Thank you notes are noted - “oh, that’s nice, they wrote back and it sounds like they enjoyed their interview here.” The LACK of a thank you note is not noted. It’s a tiny, tiny contribution to a gestalt sense that people try to develop about your overall application file. That is ALL. When someone sends a thank you note, it gets put in the file and it may get read by a future reviewer just for that little contribution to the overall picture.
Just for example: at my school we were asked to comment on the likelihood of an applicant actually wanting to come to GWU. If an interviewer commented that the person seemed indifferent to the school, didn’t seem well-informed, asked generic questions that actually had been answered during the group presentation - an effusive note gushing about how GWU was her first choice might be looked at with a bit of a jaundiced eye. On the other hand, if an interviewer noted that the person really had done his homework, asked solid questions, seemed really enthusiastic about GWU and had specific reasons why he wanted to come there - an enthusiastic thank you note would bolster that impression and would help confirm an already good impression.
DO NOT AGONIZE OVER THANK YOU NOTES, for God’s sake. Send them, don’t send them, they are NOT very important. I just wanted to be sure people know that they aren’t total throw-aways, and only say stuff you mean in them.
Mary

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DO NOT AGONIZE OVER THANK YOU NOTES, for God’s sake.


Now, I can’t speak for other applicants, most of whom are definitely way more sane than I am, but this sounds like the kind of excellent advice I always manage to thoroughly fail to listen to.
I must say that I’m getting better at handling these mini-freak outs though. Thank-You-Note-Gate is NOTHING compared to the week I spent freaking out over how my interviewers were going to roll a piano into the room and ask me to verify my childhood piano lessons, and all that was going to come to mind would be the right hand to “Clementine.”
Thank you for helping me keep perspective during this process.

You’re welcome. The reason I can give this advice is 'cause I’ve BTDT and had my own little freak-outs along the way. It is VERY hard to maintain perspective and sanity during the pre-med and application process. I feel your pain.
Mary

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Thank-You-Note-Gate is NOTHING compared to the week I spent freaking out over how my interviewers were going to roll a piano into the room and ask me to verify my childhood piano lessons, and all that was going to come to mind would be the right hand to “Clementine.”


Egads Pushkin! Childhood piano lessons? Now that brings back some scary memories. I suspect if they did that to me, I’d first have to get the interviewers to sign a legal release of liability as I couldn’t be responsible for any auditory trauma they suffered after placing me in front of a piano.
Hope your interviews are going well.

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Egads Pushkin! Childhood piano lessons? Now that brings back some scary memories. I suspect if they did that to me, I’d first have to get the interviewers to sign a legal release of liability as I couldn’t be responsible for any auditory trauma they suffered after placing me in front of a piano.
Hope your interviews are going well.


Yeah yeah, the whole piano thing was something I have continued on and off up to the present time, otherwise I’d have left it off my AMCAS application. It’s not like I was training at Julliard or anything. Playing Christmas medleys at the nursing home was more my specialty. One of my interviewers did ask about it and we had an interesting little mini-conversation about music. Piano lessons, whatever. I am just so glad my mother raised me to be good at small talk.
Ok, back to whatever this thread was about before–Thank you notes!

Although they may not “help” an application, they certainly don’t hurt (if they are from the heart). Think of how you felt when you received a handwritten thank-you note (stamp and all). Warm and fuzzy, probably. Translate that to folks who do admissions work. There are times of the year (interview season is right up there) when they need all the warm & fuzzies they can get.
Your mother taught you to write thank you notes. She was right. :slight_smile: (I wonder if my kids still do it…)
Cheers,
Judy