<p>after an interview.. is it customary to send a thank you letter?</p>
<p>btw.. harvard hasn't contacted me yet about an interview.. anyone else facing this problem?</p>
<p>Yes, it's polite to send a thank you note/e-mail.</p>
<p>I haven't been contacted either. Well, they had a problem with my file (it somehow got lost so I had to re-send it...long story). Hope we'll get that interview though.</p>
<p>It is not customary only because most applicants lack courtesy. It has been interesting to me as an alum interviewer to notice that applicants who send thank-you notes are more likely to get in. I don't think that's because the letters help them. Most of the time my interview report is sent in before I get their letters. I do think, however, that applicants who are thoughtful enough to send thank-you notes probably are kind, supportive and appreciative to other people in their lives including: teachers, GCs, and peers. Those personality characteristics probably help the applicants be more academically and socially successful than many others (i.e. in terms of getting offices, starting projects that other people support, having GCs and teachers take extra effort with advice and recommendations), make those applicants stand out when it comes to admission.</p>
<p>Northstarmom, I do hope you're right. The first thing I think after an interview is: "phew! It wasn't so bad...". The second is what I'm going to write in my thank you e-mail...</p>
<p>And I haven't been contacted either.</p>
<p>Being contacted is fairly random. I've headed the alumni interviewing committee in my region, and consequently assigned students to alum. Who got whom and when depended on rather random factors like alum's preferences. Some, for instance, preferred not to interview students at their own kids' schools. Some wanted to interview students at their kids' or their own alma maters. </p>
<p>This year things probably will be even more random due to the flood of applicants and the lack of commensurate increase in the number of interviewers.</p>
<p>and if you don't get in...</p>