Okay, several of my friends from school and I are applying to boarding schools in NE. Of course, by now we have all had our interviews and some of my friends sent thank you emails or notes while others did not. I (of course not using my brain) did not send any emails or notes, at first I thought this was fine, again I just didn’t know if that was part of the process or not. However, after looking at CC I can tell that it is clearly VERY common to send these notes after interviews. I am wondering if me not doing it will hurt my application now that we are so far into the decision process.
In general, its a good practice to send them. Definitely do so in the future (college interviews, job interviews, etc). As for your current BS applications, I’d suggest firing off thank yous to the AOs or alumni you interviewed with and any coaches, instructors, etc that you had direct contact with (the people who will remember you). Do so as part of one final update to your application, to smooth over the act of doing so. It will not hurt you, even at this point in the process. There is a very small chance that not doing so would hurt you. Most people involved with the admissions process are swamped with thank yous as they work through the time consuming admissions process. The vast majority will not notice or care about not receiving them. But don’t unnecessarily risk losing an admission because of that one person who places tremendous value on such a gesture.
I hope that AO’s understand that applicants not sending thank you notes has more to do with having parents who don’t get it. I know parents who were shocked that I allowed my child to send email thank you notes (I actually saw a video where an AO said they preferred email because it was so easy to respond to) so I think there are several different levels of being crazy about this process.