Calling all Smeal (Penn State) Applicants: (2017 Intake) Class of 2019

Even I am having the same status.
But the status view bar is in red colour.

Posted from my mobile device

Posted from my mobile device

"Status" button is red for me as well, besides if anything important were missing from application then adcom would have contacted you. So, I don't think that should be a cause of concern.
My advice is to sit tight and wait for that interview invite

Anyone else receive interview invites?


Smeal is relatively slow with their decisions this time.

Got an interview invite today via email.

Congrats. Mbasailor

All d best for the interview and do share your interview experience.

Btw, when did you submit your application?

I submitted on the 30th of September but one of my recommenders submitted after the deadline so I think that slowed things down.

Okay... I too submitted on 30th Sept.
Lets see how it goes.

Posted from my mobile device

26 days passed....still no sign of an interview invite?

So far only gunjit and MBAsailor have received invites.

I have contacted admissions staff and they coldly replied that decision dates for round 1 is Dec. 1,2016.

Yesterday, I received an invitation for the MBA Open House. Anybody else who received it?

I also received the same but that is not the official invitation to interview.

Posted from my mobile device

Yeah I know. That's the one everybody is waiting for...

I know some of you guys may be in India so that would make doing the preview day pretty difficult. If you are in the U.S. though and Smeal is somewhere you really want to go I highly recommend attending the preview day. I went to the one in September and I have no doubt that showing my interest by taking off work and heading up to State College has helped me with them so far. That is absolutely true with any good school. Unless you're on the other side of the world I don't think they will feel that great about an applicant that's never seen the school (save a stellar profile they really want of course).

Easy for me to say, but I wouldn't get down on the interview invite situation. Looking back at last year, it seems very few people updated their statuses, and as was pointed out 2 people have said they were invited to interview but I'm the only one who has actually changed the status to such. I think a lot of people create an account and get the info they need and then don't bother doing anything else with the forum.

That is definitely true. However at least few others would have updated or informed about their interview invite if many received them. If Smeal invites very few candidates for interview then it is altogether a different issue.

MBAsailor When is your interview scheduled ?

I'm headed up to Happy Valley next week. I'll give a debrief.

Hello everyone,

I hope you are doing well. If you're getting ready for an interview with Smeal, I recommend that you be prepared with a ton of questions to ask. The interview I had was very conversational, and during the interview I had ample time to chime in and ask about questions I had, whatever they were.

When it comes to questions they ask, I wouldn't say they really pulled any surprises. I was caught off guard by the question "What do you like to do for fun?" in a prior interview, so I had already prepared something a little more thoughtful than "watch football and drink beer with my friends."

I would also recommend being able to speak to all aspects of the application, from work history to goals to other things that may make you a special candidate. Think about successes and failures that you have had in the past as well as difficult or trying situations (for whatever reason: ethics, environment, etc.).

I am not sure if it makes a difference. Some questions could be marked with NA but the question about GPAs must be left blank in case of a non-4.0 GPA. So, not quite sure how this will impact.

A couple of days after I submitted my application (30th Sept.), I got an email from the ADCOM to furnish a letter of recommendation. As one of the letters didn't have my name on it (omitted by a Manager unfortunately ), they hadn't known that it was for me. It was quickly added to my file within the day. That was the only response from their side.

The application status site simply asks us to be patient. Really hard to do that with all the suspense