<p>I am unsure of the conventions of these, because I was just surprised with about $8500 worth of scholarships tonight, and upon seeing the directions of who to send thank-yous (on the envelopes and certificates), I suddenly felt guilty because I haven't set out any formal thank-you letters (maybe because I haven't been raised in the most courteous of ways) though I have been planning to. However, I've been kind of putting it off because of other schoolwork, and now I'm graduating thus Sunday. Oops. </p>
<p>Previously another teacher for my sophomore and junior years (for French; I didn't see her as often this year because my French coursework moved to a local state school) was instrumental in getting me another award and though we greeted each other in the hallways I haven't sent any formal letters of thanks. A line of conversation like, "hey thanks for the award" has suddenly only appeared in my head now -- which I find quite shocking to myself. (I usually visit her classroom asking a grammar or usage question!) I have very much a genuine interest in sending thanks, but at the same time I feel even worse if I know that I've been ignoring any established traditions that other students have. This is especially because I do not want to exhaust the goodwill of those who have recognised me and encouraged me despite my shortcomings. (And I don't have the greatest social skills ever, something I hope to correct with time, so I don't want to make them sound stilted, yet at the same time I also want to respect convention, which explains my very weird request to the Parents' Forum for something that may be a simple matter of most people.)</p>
<p>Anyway, my basic inquiry is: what are the conventions of thank-you letters for recognition or scholarships, including those entities you have to send your transcript to renew a yearly scholarship? What do people usually say? I received a $500 scholarship from a "Friends of the Public Library" sort of scholarship, and I am bewildered how I got that because I only borrowed a book (for the AP French test, which ended up not taking due to miscommunication with my counselor) once, and I returned it a day late, too. (I have tended to walk to the university library in the nearby city, since it's larger.) I am so elated yet surprised at this very mysterious charity that I have no idea what to write. </p>
<p>Also, is it bad if I never sent thank you letters to my college interviewers (it so happened that the schools that interviewed me all rejected me, haha)? It's not that I'm ingrateful -- in fact two of them sent affirmations or confirmations back to me, but I have a very bad habit of putting off personal letter writing when I have more pressing assignments to do, then forgetting to come back to personal letters. At this moment I rediscovered a very thoughtful letter on linguistic ideas (my passion!) from a young lady that has been sitting in my facebook inbox since February. Oops. </p>
<p>Once again, I find that parents tend to provide the most thoughtful insight, so pardon me if I use the parents forum to ask this.</p>
<p>I, too, suffer from the delayed thank-you response at times. Since you are finishing (or have finished) your high school years, it would be a great time to sit down and write the teachers who have helped you a general thank-you note for their work during your tenure at the school and tell the how much you appreciate them. If they have left for the summer, then they will receive the notes when they return. My son wrote his retired GC a note thanking her for a recommendation letter and letting her know his college plans. I used to administrate a community scholarship program and we usually got a note from the recipients of our scholarships saying thanks and telling us what they planned to study or how the award would help them. I always enjoyed reading them and sharing them with our organization. It is never too late to say "Thanks!" And, yes, it would have been best if you had sent the interviewers a note. That is water under the bridge now, but learn from your experience and send a prompt thank you to prospective employers following future interviews. Etiquette can be challenging if you did not grow up with it. There are some great books available- pick one up for reference.</p>
<p>It is indeed water under the bridge now, but I do wish to ask if the majority of students do send such letters, at least for the 'AP student' niche. I'm just wondering if more lively relationships could have been cultivated by sending them (and they serve as a talking point as well). I'm just fearing that I've been thought of as exceptionally rude all this while when that was not my intention.</p>
<p>I agree with bessie, there is no 'statue of limitations' on Thank You Notes!Yes, you should always send thank you's for local scholarships and college interviews. Senior year (esp 2nd semester) is quite a busy time, so briefly state that in your letter/note and apologize for the delay. You weren't accepted undergrad, but you may decide to apply to the school's grad program. Also, many jobs are obtained from networking (not the want ads), so you don't want to burn bridges (evenly unintentionally).</p>
<p>I also think the adults that helped you, know you enough to know you were working hard up to the end of the school year. Send them now and you will feel a great sense of relief!</p>
<p>There is certainly no expiration date on manners! Send the thank yous now!</p>
<p>S sent a thank you letter to the person his named merit scholarship was from, a famous alumni of his University.About a week after he did that he received a note from the Scholarship office at the U instructing him to do just what he had already done!
At the High School level, he gave flowers to the teacher/club advisor who had been most helpful /encouraging to him over the years, and wrote thank you's to the other teachers who had provided him with reccomendations.He also wrote a thank you to his local employer who provided a reference.</p>
<p>I say send notes too. My D sends notes for everything - a habit she picked up at a very young age. She baked pies for some teachers and a guidance counselor who had been particularly helpful. I don't think they had experienced that one before. I'm not sure any of the pies ever made it out of the building. Teachers have a sixth sense about baked goods - as soon as she delievered them, people came out of the woodwork with plates and forks.</p>
<p>XD cartera...that reminded me of something that happened to me recently.</p>
<p>I decided to bake my Philosophy/Bible as Lit teacher brownies, because if it weren't for him I wouldn't be graduating from my SLC (though I would still graduate from HS).</p>
<p>So I made the brownies and brought them in and as he was trying one, that Service Learning Coordinator walked in. The following conversation ensued:</p>
<p>Service Learning Coordinator (her): A student made you those?
Teacher (him): Yes...
Her: And you're actually eating them?
Him: Yes...
Her: You're very brave.
Him: <em>gives me a strange look</em> It's HGFM, I doubt she put anything bad in them.</p>
<p>LMAO.</p>
<p>Anyway. I recently won a $300 scholarship. My school works it so that we have to write thank-you notes before we get our checks...so yeah. XD I wrote four thank-you notes so I could get my check. Smart way to do it, really.</p>
<p>I sit on a scholarship board, and I can tell you that every member of the board gets a copy of the thank you notes and excerpts from the thank you notes go into our bulletin. Our scholarship is distributed over the four years of college, and we take a few minutes at each meeting to hear the updates about how our past winners are doing.
We are all volunteers, we put in a lot of time evaluating the candidates and we are delighted to hear back from the scholarship winners.
Your thank you note will be appreciated...just get it done and get it in the mail.
P.S. At this point, I do think you can skip the notes to the interviewers of the colleges that rejected you.</p>