tlbkcal wrote:
R3 applicant here. Submitted evening of 3/15 and received invite to interview today. Status changed directly from "Received" to "Invited to Interview."
On a separate note, Courtney Chandler, one of the admissions directors, confirmed during an infosession that the reason they waitlist so many applicants is precisely to make R1, R2, and R3 equally competitive. With that in mind, it seems like it would make sense that many applicants are admitted in R3/R4 since many R1/R2 WL applicants and R3/R4 applicants are all admitted together.
My theory is that they waitlist most of the candidates from the demographic and job function (fyi - no prizes for guessing) that is overly represented in the bay area. I remember one of the admissions officer saying that ave GMAT score for this group was upward of 740. The adcom must find it challenging to stitch a diverse class under such circumstances and hence wait until the final application is received before taking a holistic view. imho.