anyone hear from programs post-interview?

[plm]

hey all...happy new year! just wondering if people are receiving any feedback, thank-you's, phone calls, etc from programs after their interviews... Are thank you letters from programs simply a common courtesy or a genuine interest? I have received feedback from about 75% of the places I've interviewed with (what does that say about the others????) Anyone willing to share where they have heard from???

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[deeq]

i too have received some follow-up feedback, but from only one program. i assumed that it most likely isn't common courtesy for programs to extend this to every applicant interviewed and thus took it as a good sign. so i am curious if i am correct in my assumption and would also love to hear what others think.

 

[NYC Girl]

Hey guys! I have not received a single thing from programs, so I have assumed that if a program contacts you afterwards, it is probably a great sign.

However, I'm sure that you could infer from the tone/form of the contact whether it is a formality extended to all applicants (i.e. a form letter/email with generic thank-you's/compliments ("We thank you for your interest, you would be an excellent candidate for our program, please consider us, etc.etc.etc....", as opposed to something hand-written, or personalized. But again, given that I haven't received anything, I am probably not the world's expert on the topic!

Do you think this varies by region or type of program? I applied purely to Massachusetts/New York programs, maybe we're just more reserved and uptight here (j/k)

 

[kem]

I've received 1 "form-letter" type email, 1 form letter, and one personalized letter. I got all excited about the more personalized one, just because it's from one of the programs I'm really interested in, but I have to remember that I should take it with a grain of salt.

I hate mind games.

kem

 

[Diane L. Evans]

Did you send thank you letter?
Send letter to program director and PGY3 telling them you are intersted
Go for 2nd look at programs #1-3 that you'll rank

 

[NYC Girl]

I sent thank you letters to everyone, chairmen and program directors, and have emailed residents up the wazoo - so I doubt that programs are giving me the cold shoulder because they feel slighted I'm not sweating the lack of thank you letters - from reading past SSN posts, they really don't seem to mean anything, and have no real correlation to successful matching. If anything, some people are misled by them, and assume that a letter of interest means a promise of a match spot. At the Brigham interview, they said flat out that they *never* contact applicants after the fact, because they do not want to mislead folks.

Also, no second looks for me. I left for Bangladesh immediately after my interviews were completed, and will be here doing a public health project until around Rank List submission time - so 2nd looks would be impossible.

I think that if you have received a personalized letter from a program, you should feel good that you made a very favorable impression, and that you are a strong candidate - but obviously don't bet the house that a program is either interested/disinterested, based upon the presence/absence of follow-up contact