The email I received from the GSB Admission Committee includes FAQs, including:

The Admissions Committee used to give feedback - someone I know who applied in 2002 told me this. I'm not sure why they stopped doing so.

I'm sure it is a lot of work. But I heard that in 2002 there was an incredibly large number of applicants due to the slow economy.

I suspect they aren't giving feedback because they put far more people on the Wait List this year than they did in years past. (I don't really know if that is true - it's just my unsupported hunch.)

Can you explain how putting more people on the waitlist would be hedging their bets?

Well, it would depend on how they view their rank affecting yield this year. In all honesty, its pure conjecture - but it would go something like this -

1. App volume is up: suggests greater interest, possible increase in yield
2. #1 Rank on BW: could substantially increase yield

If yield jumps from say about 50% (an intelligent guess) to 60 or 70% (a total guess) this year, they need to be more careful about the number of admits they send out unless their want their class size to grow. Thus, the easiest way to do this is to admit some, but waitlist many. As you get back decisions throughout early 2007, your yield figures for the year will start to materialize and you can start to take people off the waitlist with reasonable confidence that you know their yield.

That said, one could also argue that #1 isn't true - that #2 makes the opposite of #1 happen. That is - application volume might go down - just like how that gorgeous blond in high school never dated anyone - you always assumed she was too good for you, but so did everyone else, and she went and developed a serious self-image problem, became a binge eater, and one day when purging over the toilet in her doctor's office she ripped her esophagus and bled to death on the cold linoleum flooring, still clutching a photo of you from 1992 when she first fell in love.

Similarly the GSB here might be getting fewer apps - precisely because people view it as too much of a stretch school. Even so, if thats the case, then those who get in are (presumably) more likely to accept, so again, there's an argument to leverage the waitlist.

Either way, I should have dated that blond in high school.

LOL!

When is the R2 decision date?

Good lord... thats sooooooooo far away.

I wonder if they'll push it up again

Hows it going on the apps guys? R2 deadline creeping up!

Hmm.. I have no idea. I think it was after my interview though. Oddly enough, mine says yes, but to the best of my knowledge they were not contacted.

Mine haven't been contacted either. So, I guess by "verified" the AdCom means just "read thru"