Post interview thank you notes

anyone with thoughts on the thank you notes.....long, detailed, typed vs. short hand written thank you

I wrote thank you letters for the first three interviews and then none after that. If you look at the JBJS article on how important thank you letters are, you will notice that they are about at the bottom of the list when making a rank list. I did, however, send letters of interest to my top three programs toward the end of the game. Maybe I am just rude, but I was definitely not alone in the no thank you note camp last year!

I sent thank you letters to every program that I went to. This was a pain in the behind. The letters basically pointed out some good points about the program, and I usually ended the letter with an ambiguous statement like, "I plan to rank your program highly." But again, truthfully, this letter probably means absolutely nothing.

A program director I know well said this doesnt mean a hill of beans....there are so many candidates and so many thank you's, that none of them are actually read very closely.

I know many people who matched without thank you's......

I wont be writing them, too many other things to do!

I wrote thank you notes to the chairman and or residency director at every program that I interviewed at, with the exception of two...one at the bottom of my list, and one near the middle that was deciding their rank list on the evening of the interviews. I tried to bring up something we talked about during the interview, to help jog their memory of who I was (they interviews so damn many). I think sincere thank you cards can do nothing but help. I also wrote letters of intent to my top two programs. I got my first choice, so who knows. Just don't send the same letter to more than one person in the department as they usually all get shoved into your file and look stupid when you put them together.

In the JBJS article that has been mentioned in prior posts on residency selection criteria - post-interview thank you notes are probably the least value of anything that an applicant does.