Cornell R3 - Any one interviewed yet?

Hey... good news! I'm glad you thought it went well. A question for you - did you encounter any application-specific questions or was it a 'blind' interview in its true sense?

thats a good interview.. now the waiting game hmm..

did he/she give you any feedback?

was it too cold there?

Who did you have the interview with?

I just received an invitation for interview and I need to book mine asap. I notice there is also a tour and some other meetings offered. How did you find these?

Could you give more info about where to stay and how much time I need to get around?

Thanks!

aaudetat, can you share some interview questions?

Hey aaudetat,

congrats on the interview! I just checked my email moments ago and received the "request for an interview" from Johnson. I hope everything went well with you.

Good thing for me too, b/c alot of my other schools are rather quiet at the moment....

I just booked an interview for Monday Feb 5th. Also signed up for class visit and info session. Anyone else going to be on campus that day?

I can't believe how rushed and last minute these admission processes are... It's gonna be really tight, trying to schedule my work. There is even a slight chance I might have to cancel if my meetings from this week get pushed back to next week.


Better start preparing too!

Sure, but from the brief discussion I had with other interviewees, the questions differed a lot.

Interviewer was very interested in my background - how I got to where I am (it's not at all obvious as far as career paths go), what I am planning to do, why I have done what I have done. What do I do for fun? How do I influence people? What drew me to the school? Biggest accomplishment. Biggest disappointment.

I didn't get any questions I would consider especially hard.

It's been a cold couple days up on the hill, but you all shouldn't complain. I met this nice guy from Mexico City and gave him a campus tour - he didn't have a hat and wore his dress shoes! He loved it. I hope they let him in; he's perfect.

Inteview is blind - he had only a resume.

The interviews are done by students, admissions people, director of park fellowship, and I dont know who else. It's a bit of a crap-shoot.

If you want to throw down some money, stay at the Statler. It's across the street from the Johnson School. The Hilton Garden Inn is a good idea, as the #10 bus heads up to campus from the corner of Seneca and Tioga every 10 minutes and drops you off right next to Sage. The bus trip takes less than 15 minutes. Some of the hotels also offer a shuttle, I believe.

Cabs are pricey here, and parking is a bit of a pain on campus. There's a parking garage 2 blocks from Sage Hall, but it'll cost you $10.

Attending classes is great - and Michael, the front desk guy, will let you pick what you want to go to. Major improvement over getting stuck in god-knows-what awful class that you can't follow.

The lunchtime student session is ok - it will totally depend on how good at presenting and facilitating your student hosts are. This was my 2nd Cornell info session, and this was much better than the last.

If you do dinner downtown, head to Just a Taste. Drink wine. Eat lots. MMM.

If anyone is coming to town and wants to get beer, PM me. My life totally sucks right now -- actually, I have no life because work has eaten it (I just finished, am still at my desk, relaxing a little so I don't go home and yell at my poor man), but if you're here on a Sunday/Monday, I am happy to entertain.

still waiting for interview.. the silence is killing me!

Looks like I will be driving down on Sunday evening... GoogleMap says it is about 400km from Toronto and will take me 4 hrs. Does that sound right? I can get to the Buffalo outlet malls in about 2 hours, can I get from Buffalo to Ithaca in 2 more hours?

In terms of accomodations, I think Statler is slightly out of my price range, and the Best Western or Econo Lodge will have to do. Any comments on either of those? (leaning towards EconoLodge for $60/night)

I assume that there is no "traffic" in this town and barring any major snow storms, I can get to campus in less than 20mins?

I feel like I am planning on of those doomed missions into a foresaken land... like that rescue mission in Black Hawk Down... where I don't know anything about the place, don't know how long it will take to get there, probably get shot down (by adcom) walking around a blind corner...

Where is my invite??????????????!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh come on, this isn't the boonies! it's a tiny piece of paradise surrounded by the boonies.

Yes, nothing will take more than 20 minutes. Traffic can be a little annoying here and there, but overall, it's never a big deal. I would say more like 3 hours from Buffalo -- it definitely takes almost 2 hours to get to Rochester from here. And you know about the white-outs up near the lakes, so I won't warn your about those.

The Econo Lodge is near the mall - the Hollywood Video/Pizza Hut part of Ithaca, near the mall, which I usually avoid. Best Western is at East Hill Plaza, which is a small business area that serves the Cornell population. There's a good restaurant up there, Olivia, a grocery store, and some bars. Smaller than the mall area, but better IMO. I would check and see if one of them has a shuttle, but otherwise parking for the day in the garage near Sage Hall is $10. East Hill Plaza is much closer (in Ithaca terms) to campus.

Uh,Buffalo and Rochester are supposed to be the metro areas that are easily accessible? I thought those were the boonies

Just kidding.

I'm still waiting for an interview invite. For those of you with the invite, does your status change and then you get an invite? This is what mine says:

Your application has been received and is being processed. If you submitted paper recommendations or transcripts, it will take several weeks to update your Status Report. We appreciate your patience while we process your application

Did you submit paper recommendations or transcripts? I submitted online ones and my status changed to something like, "Your app is complete. It'll be passed on to the adcom for review"

Does it change again after an interview invite?

I recieved an email on Tuesday that notified me of the interview. Afterwards, my status changed to interview/hold on their system..

I did everything online and the system finally received all of my materials on the 17th. Its kind of weird- some people were receiving invites during the same week of the deadline.

I have no idea how these schools decide on things...