I’m old school. I think thank you notes should be handwritten and dropped in the mailbox. My daughter finds that quaint, charming, and completely inefficient. She wants the notes to make it into her folder or file and says email will save the staff the trouble of scanning…
Thoughts?
IMHO, the handwritten letter will give more of an ‘oomph’ factor in the application and shows maturity to the school and the AO. Plus, I don’t it would take that long to make a copy of something sent in the mail than to just take the email route and having to print it out later.
I encouraged DD to do handwritten. Yes it took longer to get there, but I thought it showed a bit more effort since each one had to be done on it’s own - no copy and pasting.
Going to go the other way. It will get tossed in the trash, not even scanned. Not expected, just more meaningless paper for admissions to handle. Focus her time in better essays or content for her app.
For prep schools, it will get noted, IMO. Small schools, less applicants than college. Personal touch is good. Boarding schools still send handwritten notes themselves.
Tell her to humor you and just write them.
No thank you notes for my two BS students and they did just fine.
Not sure if it ended up mattering or not, but we recommended email to our kid for the sake of immediacy; notes following an interview and/or tour were sent within a couple hours of leaving a school. Each email was very unique to the recipient, with references to things that were discussed or things that were observed on tour. The kid did get responses back to some of those emails which we were certainly happy to see.
In hindsight I’m wondering if doing both wouldn’t have a bigger impact? Perhaps the handwritten one could be penned a couple days later as a “thank you again” with a “can’t stop thinking about…” and “thought you’d be interested to know…”. Or is that overkill?
“Or is that overkill?”
I don’t think so. Enthusiasm from a teen is a good thing as long as the note is well-written and honest but balanced (nothing kooky).
I think it’s worth encouraging your kid to handwrite a thank you note, mostly because it’s just old-fashioned good manners. I suspect that whether an applicant handwrites a note, sends an email, does both or does nothing makes absolutely no difference whatsoever for his chances of acceptance.
I think a handwritten note to admissions is a good idea. However, if your (student) tour guide gave you their email address, send them a thank you note through email. They are much more likely to receive and remember if that way.
Do they keep those notes on file?
@doschicos : Very curious as to what may have inspired you to warn against anything “kooky.”
Care to share an example of what you would consider “kooky”?
Email for the interview. They’re going to be writing their report within 24 hours so you can’t rely on slow post.
I agree with @cababe97. Handwritten note to those who interviewed your child, email to student tour guides.
Edited to add that either would be fine for any coaches. We actually encouraged emails to the coaches to encourage further communication.
I am generally a stickler for handwritten thank-you notes, but my son sent e-mails to the interviewers and coaches with whom he met. Better chance of everything being correct, neat and legible (and quicker). He ended up keeping up ongoing email correspondence with some of the coaches upon until the application due dates.
I think email is just fine. Handwritten notes sometimes might even be considered a “nuisances” by the recipient. Very nicely written appreciative email often is returned with just as appreciative reply by the interviewer.
I think either is fine. With that said, when we were applicants (college and BS), the handwritten notes DS received really stood out, whether from an interviewer or or an AO, so my bias (and perhaps my age) is that you really can’t go wrong with a handwritten note.
Just saw the kid’s draft. It is loooong… even after rewriting to reduce it by half. It may have to be email to avoid a cramped hand, lol!!!
^^I’m impressed. Mine was a man of few words.
SwimKid did emails. To be honest I didn’t think about hand written notes until after the process! I missed the memo that it was a thing to do. It wasn’t until one AO sent a handwritten note that it even crossed my mind! I think either is fine.
Re: Kooky
Some kids can just go overboard in terms of wording or town. Just out of proportion. That’s all I meant. Keep it short and to the point yet personalized to the school.
As far as getting there before the write-up is written, I don’t think that is the point. It is quite possible that the interviewer rights up the report right after or within hours. It is unlikely to influence that anyway, IMO. It is more to indicate your kid’s strong interest in the school for when the whole application is being considered. As they say on the college side, demonstrated interest. Remember, schools care about yield. A thank you note isn’t going to turn a no into a yes but on the margin, since they know students are applying to more than one school, it will let them know you remain interested and a subtle reminder of “gee, what a polite kid”. To me, it is also just good manners and falls into the “leave no stone unturned” camp.