Thank you's to Recommenders

[lightballsdeep]

Hi!  Finally got the results back from my applications, now I am wonder how everyone chooses to thank and inform their letter writers??

I started to write a personal email to each of them, however, that seems a little lackluster.  Thoughts?

Also considering a physical thank you card? I'm two years our of undergrad so I am not in regular contact with my writers. I would love to hear what different people did!

[Apogeee]

6 minutes ago, lightballsdeep said:

Hi!  Finally got the results back from my applications, now I am wonder how everyone chooses to thank and inform their letter writers??

I started to write a personal email to each of them, however, that seems a little lackluster.  Thoughts?

Also considering a physical thank you card? I'm two years our of undergrad so I am not in regular contact with my writers. I would love to hear what different people did!

I sent hand-written thank you notes the day I applied to various schools. I am sending one more round after I make my final decision.

[Vulpix]

Thanks OP for reminding me to do this.... as soon as I saw this topic, I was like, oops, I gotta send those out!  Just whipped out my cards and googled some professional addresses  .  I was going to just do this by email, but Agrippina's comment made me realize that, yes, hand-written is just so much better.  I didn't do that when I applied, but I am certainly doing it now!  (Now that i have good news to share!)

Edited March 13, 2016 by Heather1011

[Danger_Zone]

I think a nice hand written thank you would be much appreciated, as others have said. I plan to do this once I choose a school.. I was planning on getting a small gift at the school as well (just a pen or mug/cup with the name of the school on it) but people keep saying gifts are a bad idea.... should I just forget that?

[fencergirl]

Why would people say gifts are a bad idea? I mean, you want to be careful to get something appropriate of course but I think gifts are fine. Just be careful not to spend too much or give something that looks like it might be worth a lot of money as professors may not be allowed to accept those. (Personally I'd also stay away from food and alcohol unless I really knew their taste).

I gave my LORs a card and a small canvas print I made on Snapfish using photos from my time here in Japan. They seemed to really like it and one said it was the best thank you gift ever so it was well worth it for me! (Snapfish often has 50-60% off sales, I'd definitely wait for one of those if you want to go that route).

[eggfish]

8 hours ago, Danger_Zone said:

I think a nice hand written thank you would be much appreciated, as others have said. I plan to do this once I choose a school.. I was planning on getting a small gift at the school as well (just a pen or mug/cup with the name of the school on it) but people keep saying gifts are a bad idea.... should I just forget that?

After I received confirmation that my professors had already sent their letters (so it didn't seem like I was trying to influence them), I wrote thank you cards by hand and delivered them to my professors with gourmet cookies.  I'll probably write more thank you cards once I make my decision.  

[Danger_Zone]

3 hours ago, fencergirl said:

Why would people say gifts are a bad idea? I mean, you want to be careful to get something appropriate of course but I think gifts are fine. Just be careful not to spend too much or give something that looks like it might be worth a lot of money as professors may not be allowed to accept those. (Personally I'd also stay away from food and alcohol unless I really knew their taste).

I gave my LORs a card and a small canvas print I made on Snapfish using photos from my time here in Japan. They seemed to really like it and one said it was the best thank you gift ever so it was well worth it for me! (Snapfish often has 50-60% off sales, I'd definitely wait for one of those if you want to go that route).

I've seen people mention that it can be against university policy (I guess if it looks like a professor is taking gifts in exchange for letters? Other than that I'm not sure.. I think it sounds fine to do as well.) I hadn't actually heard of Snapfish before, that sounds like a great idea.. I'll have to look into it, thanks!

[works_on_paper]

I was a non-trad student, and had close relationships with my advisor/mentor and the other two profs who wrote letters for me. I went up to campus to see them and give the good news, and took gifts. I knew their particular tastes, so two of them got bottles of top-shelf liquor, and the third got a really nice bottle of wine. 

If I hadn't known them as well as I did, and if I hadn't still been living close to campus, I probably would have just written them each a thank-you letter, and sent some sort of nice  food item as a token of my thanks. Worst case, they would have put it in the staff break room for everybody to share, but given the support I got from the department staff and other profs during my undergrad, that's not such an awful thing.