A thank you card for those who interviewed you and for the residents and chief residents who have taken you for a hospital tour or for dinner would be very nice. Ask the program coordinator how to proceed with this, she will usually tell you, give me the cards and I will hand it to the recipients.

Make the cards specific for each one. Thank you for taking me into amazing hospital tour, thank you for the informative interview, ...etc

If you don't want to do the cards, you can do emails but cards are more powerful.

Now, if you are really interested in that program then it's a good idea to contact them again. This can be done in two ways:

1) Second Look;
Asking for a second look would really show your interest and would also really help you determine if you really like this program or not. Asking for second look should be asked soon after the interview (I'd say within 2 weeks) but don't be pissed off if they reject your request, some programs do not allow second looks, that's normal.

2) I will rank you;
An "I will rank you" communication is a good hint from your side that you are interested in the program. Try not to be too much exaggerating and be realistic. For example a crap program in NY, it's not wise to tell them that they are the best program ever and that you will rank them number 1, that's so an obvious lie and they won't believe you. On the other hand, if you really like a program you can tell them that you will rank them number 1. The "I will rank you" communication usually comes late, shortly before the ranking time in February 2013.

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Thanks Steptaker,

I have a question about "thank you cards" you just mentioned.
Would you please describe it with more details? Which kind of cards are more appropriate? Should we bring them with us to IV and possibly hand it to PC after IV?

 

Should we contact PD or PC regarding second look?
Thank you very much for ur input!!!

 

The program coordinator is enough to ask for a second look, she will tell you to contact the PD if required but generally she can arrange that.

Of course there are exceptions like if the PC did not reply after repeated attempts then you can contact the PD directly or if you personally know someone else in the program (such as an attending or resident) then in that case you can do it through the contact.

Do not get me wrong here by thinking that contacting the PD is prohibited, No, it's absolutely fine to contact the PD but am just saying for a second look request it might be more appropriate to start with the PC.

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You can e-mail them appreciate this opportunity that allowed you to know more about the program, the residents and their educational activities. And it's a chance for you to express your interest again in their program and u may add whatever you forgot to mention during the interview

 

I have a question regarding the I Will rank you #1 statement. Is it legal? as far as I know, no such statement can be asked by the PD during interviews, so my question is:

Is it legal for one to say it, without being asked about it?

thanks for the advice.

 

Well, I don't think it's illegal.
Your senior friends and maybe even experts might tell you, do not say a number just say I will rank you high.
But for me I don't think it's problem saying number 1 or even telling them that you rank them number 2 after Harvard ( even though you didn't have an interview with Harvard ), by the way am using Harvard as an example of an elite program you can much lower to make it sound reasonable.

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