After Interview

After the interview, make sure that you maintain some sort of contact with the program. Write them a thank you note telling them how much you liked their program. Also, give every note a personal touch by, perhaps, referring to something that the program director discussed with you during the interview. Or, perhaps, some unique facet of the program. It is not advisable to write a standard email and send it to every program since the programs, with their years of experience, will recognize it as a standard email. And that may actually have a negative impact. After all, it represents lack of bother. Although, emails are highly convenient, it is best to send your appreciation to the program via snail mail, like a thank you or a Christmas card. Although it takes an extra effort, the program director will see this extra effort and hence…

The programs that like you would also like to see that you are interested in them. Thus, they are more likely to rank you high if you can convincingly convey your interest in their program. Hence, the importance of continuing to write to them at every possible excuse, even after you are done with the interview.

Probably the one thing that would get the message across loudest is a second visit to their program. Some programs may ask you to visit them again. Even if a program does not and it happens to be very high on your rank order list, write to them regarding the possibility of a second visit and go ahead with it (if your schedule allows). It will give you another opportunity to impress the program, plus it will convince the program faculty that you are genuinely interested in what they have to offer.

In order to leave a good impression, use good quality stationery for example Linen Papers with matching envelopes. Choose a decent colour like ivory. You can buy them from any Staples stores however you’ll have buy a whole box of 100 sheets or so. Use a laser printer to print the letter unless you are very confident about your handwriting; and sign the letter at the end. Remember these twenty bucks will be well spent. Afterwards, you can conduct the correspondence by email.

Note: This article has been derived from "Roadmap to Residency" authored by AKU graduates, with permission from few of the authors. Name of the original author, has purposely not been mentioned on request of one of the authors, for privacy reasons. If you are the original author of this article and want your name to be mentioned or wish this article to be modified/ removed from this website, please contact us and we would be more than happy to entertain your request. We fully respect your privacy, acknowledge your efforts put in authoring this article and appreciate your hard work involved in it.