The other day I was talking with a friend about his medical school applications. He voiced some concern about recently finding out that he had addressed a thank you letter to the wrong interviewer. He was pretty freaked-out due to the general consensus that writing thank you notes is a necessity.
Many graduate school policies concerning thank you notes suggest that writing them is indeed more than just a kind gesture–it’s pretty much a requirement.
At the University of Michigan Medical School “we both record whether or not we receive thank you communication and that material is then appended to the applicant’s electronic file,” says Robert Ruiz, Director of Admissions.
In other words, your thank you notes to individuals may be read by an entire admissions committee.
Other schools give a bit less official weight to thank you letters. “We accept them and they are put in the committee’s folder for the applicant,” noted Gaye Sheffler, the Director of Admissions at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. “But it’s not a requirement and it’s not going to boost your chances of acceptance.”
While this policy appears to be less strict, it still means that an entire committee can read your thank you letters and not sending one could make you stand out in a bad way. Pressuring applicants to write letters of thanks is “like requiring people to hold the door for others, it’s kind of ridiculous,” says College sophomore Eddie Maiwald. Another College sophomore, Sara Cleto thinks that “it’s not necessary but a good idea.”
If applying to graduate school, you should definitely write thank-you notes after interviews and you should put a decent amount of effort into them.
Like it or not, it appears that the competition in the world of admissions has made thank you letters more than just a polite thing to do.
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