I have gone over the (somewhat crappy
) google doc spreadsheet from class of 2013 thread last year around, and washed the data a little bit. I'll try to see if I can upload the data+pivot file to this thread. Anyway, it gives some grounds for reassurance for most of us folks here (which is good, right?:).
A few notes:
The data is in no way complete, so use for indicative purposes only, of course There are a lot of unknowns (meaning, actual candidates listed w/o complete sets of data, not even decisions etc...).
I'm not going to comment much on RD as it doesn't pertain to most of us. And frankly, since I won't be applying in that round, don't really care:)
For those listed as admitted in the ED round (29% of ED applicants), their average age was 26.6, GPA 3.49, GMAT 730 and they had 4.6 years of WE. They had to wait, on average, 59 calendar days for their decision. This means 8.5 weeks, folks. I guess Columbia isn't bs'ing when they say allow for 8 - 12 weeks..? The minimum was 28 days, which of course is 4 weeks, and the max was 144 days. This is the kind of stuff that makes me question the data, but whatever - it is what we have to work with. Std dev was 26.7 days.... There's no real value, the way I see it, in looking at the GPA, GMAT, etc.
On average, ED Admits waited 30 days from submitting to receiving interview, 9 days from interview invite to interview took place. Then another 6 days before the interview status went complete, and another 13 days before they received decision... This is 38 data points, and the spread is wide.. Some kid who submitted in may (christ) got his decision end of august, whereas another kid who submitted in end of august heard back positively only 28 days later (no pun intended). BUT, then we have people like KBC who must have been tearing his/her hair out: submitted 10/6 last year and got the decision 1/31 this year! Another guy did 10/5 and got 1/13 as decision date.. And among those who submitted last day (slackers!), there are some who heard in 29 days.. Can't find a pattern to this.
Of those 38 people on ED who were admitted (such an incomplete dataset), 12 people heard on Mondays, and 10 people heard on Fridays. Of course, then another 4 people heard on Saturdays, which should in my opinion invalidate the whole set - but we have heard of people who've been interviewed by Mary Miller herself and gotten the admit right after the interview is done.
Folks. This seems extreme - I know. But it was a valuable exercise. I'm not going to fret over this stuff anymore. The 30 minutes it took washing and analyzing the data was worth it.
(I did think it interesting that the avg GMAT (OK, 4 datapoints) for J Term admitted people was 685).
18 Oct 2011, 12:40
app went in august 9th got decision like 5 weeks later 
