Thank you letters with large panel interviews

[jmelinte]

I have an interview coming up, where I will be in a large group of candidates. We will each take turns rotating through several separate rooms, eventually meeting with all the school's faculty. I am expecting to meet quite a few faculty members, given the size of the interview candidate group, and am worried about keeping track of names. When interviewing with a larger number of faculty members, is it customary to send each one a thank you letter, or only to the school director and assistant director? If letters should go to each one, how are you guys remembering all the names, and especially proper spelling? In past interviews, I have been so nervous going in, that this has been a challenge, and it always feels awkward to find a moment to write down names on my notepad at some point during the interview. I know some schools list the faculty members on their web site, but that's not always the case.

[Shanimal]

I never had a large panel interview, so I can't speak from personal experience. While I think that individualized thank you letters are nice, I really wouldn't worry too much about it if remembering that many names not listed on the program website is burdensome: you're already going to be nervous that day as it is and there's really no need to add on to that stress IMO. If it's at all plausible, maybe one strategy you can try is to have a list of all the available faculty names with you that day so you can just add a quick checkmark next to anyone you interviewed with, and maybe scribble additional names on the page if needed. Don't worry about spelling at that point--a quick Google check afterwards can confirm or correct your guesses. If you can't remember all of them, send a thank you note to all of the ones you DO remember. It's not like they get together afterwards and compare notes and say, "Hey, jmelinte sent you a thank you note and not me? Guess that one's not getting an admission offer."