<p>I have several college visits booked that have appts with various department reps and faculty members. I'll be having the kid write TY notes to the admissions offices, but should I have him write to everyone he meets as well? </p>
<p>If yes, I'm thinking of having him write one letter to all on an 8.5x11 sheet, make multiple copies, then a handwritten sentence or two for every individual.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Whatever you decide (and I don’t necessarily think everyone needs a TY note including admissions office) don’t make a copy and send it even with added words at the bottom. It’s not a Christmas letter.</p>
<p>Hi Crester:</p>
<p>My S wrote individual thank you notes to professors on classes he sat in on, also to a professor that we spoke to in his office for almost an hour (!) (didn’t even end up going to that school even though we fell in love with the school and this professor) and also to a head of a dept. who we had a very quick impromptu meeting. In addition he also wrote thank you notes to a few admin. people we met and he talked to at a few universitites.</p>
<p>IMO each thank you note should be hand written and not made copies of. But that’s just my opinion because I believe thank you notes are important. He could write a draft and use basically the same thing for each note, but again, imo each note should be hand written.</p>
<p>I think through the whole college selection process, he wrote maybe ten thank you notes, so it wasn’t too, too many, but the idea of hand writing them can’t be beat.</p>
<p>My husband (prof at med school) would be happy to receive a thank you, he thinks typed is fine, e-mail is fine. No need to add handwritten notes - that’s definitely too much like a Christmas letter.</p>
<p>I think you can leave the admissions offices off the thank you list. These people are doing their jobs. In fact, my kids mostly got thank you notes <em>from</em> the admissions offices after they visited.</p>
<p>Thanks folks. I forgot about the email option. </p>
<p>I’ll keep all these suggestions in mind! I may just make him write them as we are sitting in the airport/airplane on the way home, bwahahaa.</p>
<p>I get these. The ones where the student says:
I really enjoyed chatting about (naval architecture/string theory/biological warfare, etc) and am really excited to read the books that you recommended on the subject</p>
<p>are great. The ones that say “I enjoyed meeting you” strike me as just so much
a**kissing. Say something substantive about the actual content of the conversation you had with the prof – or don’t send one.<br>
Best yet is to wait a week and actually READ the article/book the prof recommended and then say something SUBSTANTIVE about the book/article. YMMV</p>
<p>I didn’t move the car after each college visit until after we had a pros and cons list for each college. I would quickly write down the names of the people who were most helpful, and one thought/idea/book they mentioned. Take some notes with you. My DD has had a template for a thank you note stuck to her desk for all of high school.<br>
Thank you for___ I especially appreciated _____ It was thoughtful of you to ___ Again, thank you. </p>
<p>Those four sentences are magic: fast easy to formulate, and very meaningful for the receiver. By the way, I am in the camp that recommends thank you notes only to the people who go out of their way to be helpful - one or two per college MAX. I am big on thank you notes, but I think more than this is overkill.</p>