That's an incorrect interpretation. First things first, Stern's decisions are rolling and the applications are reviewed in the order they were received. The deadlines for Initial Decisions are the LATEST date by which you will receive your INITIAL notification. That means, you'll either be invited to interview, or waitlisted, or denied admissions. So, you WILL receive either of these three notifications LATEST by January 1, 2019 if you submitted in R1. In all means, you can receive your initial notification much before that date. In fact, you might even get your FINAL decision before that deadline.

Let me add two more info here:
(1) Yes, you might get interviewed in 2019. Let's say you submitted right on the deadline and your application was last to be reviewed. In that case, you will hear back latest by January 1, 2019. Let's say you hear back on January 1 and get the interview invite. It's obvious that you'll be interviewing in January 2019 and would be hearing your final decision in 2019
(2) Once you interview, you will receive your final decision within 21 days from your date of interview. So, if you interview in November or in early December, you will receive your final decision in 2018 itself. Cheers!

Let me know if it's still not clear or if you still have any doubts
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Yes thats clear now, thanks!
And have they started sending out invites already??

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Yes, they have. That's to the best of my knowledge. And, if I had to guess (based on my knowledge of school and prior experience), the final decisions will start flying out come December.

P.S. Don't put me on the stand or in an indictment for this. Admissions can be unpredictable.
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They have up until January 1st to invite you, and it seems as if they are the slowest on interview invites.

Math time: if they get roughly the same number of applicants as reported last year ~3000 and 1/4 applied this first round that's 750, let's say that they get to 10 per day (if they truly read and review every app) that means 75 days, divide by 5 for 5 work days per week and you get 15 weeks until they're at the end.

Ignore the math: basically it is realistic to expect that they will use the full amount of time they have.

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Anyone heard back yet? Seems like people had posted that they received interview invites in 1st week of Nov last year...

Don't worry, the invites will go on till 31 Dec 2018. I hope NYU doesn't spoil my new year
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Hopefully we get to hear news starting tomorrow (as today is a holiday)

Of you are only 22 I think you can get more experience before applying to an MBA. Or consider early career programs =)

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Here's my two cents:

1. Just 22 and freshly graduated, you should be considering programs like HBS 2+2, Stanford early career admissions etc. Note that schools hardly encourage applying without ample experience under your belt however diverse your profile is (guess how'd you justify your Bachelor of Business Management in International Business when you are playing professional football? Moreover, and more importantly, how do you justify the immediate need of MBA??? Think over that)
2. Since b-schools strongly discourage international candidates from applying in R3, my advice would be to apply in R1 next year. Why waste time, money, and effort when the schools are advising against it?

P.S. Don't want to discourage you, but your version of 'literally defining 'Diversity'' may not resonate with the adcoms as there are many such accomplished candidates.
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Has anyone had their status change? Mine still says "Submitted"