Hi All,
Totally new to the boarding school process. Have a quick question: Is it common to receive a hand written thank you note in the mail from an Admission officer who interviews the student?
We would like to think that the interviews went pretty good and DC has strong extracrurricular, good grades and great personality. DC loved the schools he interviewed. and sent email thank you. DC did not take SSAT yet.
Yes, it is very common at some schools. Read nothing into getting a note. Read nothing into not getting a note.
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We got so excited to receive a handwritten thank you note from the two schools we were interviewed. Oh well, now we know it may be a common thing:)
It is so nice to get handwritten notes from AOs! Especially in this day and age of email. Unfortunately, they are designed to make you feel warm and fuzzy about the school - although I would not doubt that whatever the AO said in the note is true. It is simply that the note, and what was said in it, have zero impact on the chance of your admission. Good luck in your journey!
It doesn’t mean you have an edge, but it does say something about the culture of the school. They didn’t have to do that but they wanted to make a personal connection. As a somewhat old-fashioned gal that way, it strikes me as a nice touch.
We all got excited when we saw two handwritten notes from two of the top tier schools DC interviewed for. I agree that it shows their culture and makes you feel warm and fuzzy about the school!
It does say something about the culture. That said, DD2 interviewed at 16 schools last year, and she got 16 handwritten notes. So it’s a nice comment on culture, but perhaps not a differentiating one. (however, I will say some were far more detailed than others. I was amazed by how long some of the notes were!)
Oh and to prepare you in advance: you just made the Christmas card list for those schools too.
How many acceptances were there out of 16, if I may ask?
@chemsider
She didn’t apply to 4 of them (due to fit — nothing crazy but just didn’t love some of the schools we visited.)
So out of 12 applications she got 8 acceptances + 3 Waitlist + 1 rejection.
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@Calliemomofgirls Wow! Congratulations! May I ask what school did she choose?
Do not read into it - a big part of an AO’s job is marketing/sales. Many schools send out holiday cards. A couple of the girls schools also sent valentines - one with chocolate! Some schools in the pack of acceptance letters to our house had hand written notes or personalized messages on the official acceptance letters - very nice gesture and reflected culture of the schools. A couple notes on the letters from HOS’s, as well as AO.
More importantly, do have your kiddo follow up with a note to the AO after your interview, virtual interview, etc.
I’ll only add that it’s nice for an applicant to also send a thank you note, just like you would with a job interview.
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Yes excellent point, @Golfgr8 about kiddo writing note to AO. When we went on our trip of visits, we took cards with us and every night in the hotel, DD2 wrote a thank you note to the two AO’s she met that day. (Yes we visited 2 schools a day – one day 3 – for 6 days, but we had to make the most of the trip since we live far away!).
@chemsider She is at Andover. And just so you know, you can easily find info like that (answering things like: “hmmm…I wonder where they ended up? and I wonder where they applied and what their SSAT scores were?”) by checking older threads, in particular the results thread that is created every March. Lots of folks put in their results, including their stats. There are two threads in March IIRC – a clean “results” thread, and then another with results, and stats, and explanation of what went well and what didn’t.
Also, you can click on any user name and then on their threads or responses to see if they have shared helpful info in other conversations.
So if someone says something like “omigosh my kid is JUST LOVING the science program at her school!” you can often track down that information by poking around a bit. Which isn’t to say you can’t just ask folks. (Some folks choose to be open on the public posts and some would prefer to share stuff like which school in DM, just FYI.) But I have found the rabbit hole of digging deeper into the comments of others to be 1. super informative and 2. really interesting and 3. a black hole that pulls me from things I actually need to get done in life.
I relate to this statement so much 
Glad to know I’m not alone in the black hole of old CC posts.
Okay, am I the only one who cringes at the thought of hand-written notes on cut down trees (paper) being carried in a gas powered van (on rubber tires that never degrade), then being flown through the air in a massive carbo-emitting airplane to another van and finally arriving at it’s destination, just so someone can say “gosh, that’s a nice thought!” In 2020, email is not impersonal…it literally saves the world.
Sigh…tree-hugging rant completed.
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Our child sends out Thank you emails after virtual interviews. I thought that would be fine considering current situation. Do you still recommend physical notes?
@Calliemomofgirls great advice!
We lover our Andover interview. It was one of the best along with Exeter.
How does she like the school?
*loved.oops.
@Altras too lazy to find it right now but in one of those great articles that appear each year compiling interesting/successful college application essays (the NYT does these, among other pubs), one kid’s essay was basically a calculation of the postage from all of the brochures, flyers, invitations to apply, etc. which the kid had received, along with some back of the envelope math on the carbon footprint of same. IIRC kid got in everywhere.
@chemsider
Email thank you notes are absolutely fine/good/standard. There is zero need to send physical notes.
For those of you who are environmentally conscious …a few years ago when kiddo was applying to schools, DA had a “green” initiative - the tote bag And content was from recycled paper - they did not send out materials that year to be mindful of the environment. We kept it all.
In addition to emails as one way to say thank you…
You can purchase plantable seed note cards/paper - just for fun.