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Awesome, thanks to you both. That's the way I was leaning--but, in my field, funding just comes from the university, not a specific prof. (I haven't even chosen an advisor, yet), so the person writing for me doesn't really gain anything from it--except, really, my gratitude, & so I wanted to make sure to get that part right, having put one more thing on their plate!

Hi all, So, I made it to grad school, so I sort of know the drill about asking for letters of rec, but, now that I'm applying for a few different grants/fellowships this summer (one to fund conference travel, one to fund a week of archival research), I was wondering about the etiquette regarding thanking profs/advisors for letters as a grad student. That is, at this point, it seems like having to ask for letters is going to become more routine, it basically just being a given/part of a prof's job that grad students will ask for letters. This being slightly opposed to the less-given responsibility of writing for undergrads (i.e., not every undergrad is going to go to grad school & so need letters, but every grad student is probably going to be applying for funding throughout their program). So, with my undergrad letter writers, I wrote heartfelt thank you letters/got them a (small) gift, etc., because it felt like a big deal, and that seemed to be one of the rules of asking for grad school letters: "thank your profs, thank them in writing, it's not a huge deal but its still extra work for them, so, be gracious, and not just an email". But what about now? Do I need to go for a card? Or are the "thanks"/"thanks so much"'s I've been emailing along with the fellowship info, plus an update when I hear back, enough? (I'm slightly nervous because I hope to eventually ask this person to be my advisor and so I really don't want to come off as rude--but also not as overdoing it--hence the overthinking )