Fellow swimmers,
I think we did miss the boat: there's been roughly 18-19 invites reported here, which is in line with the 19 that reported receiving invites in R1 last year...
I'd also note that Derrick Bolton suggested in the below interview a shift in admissions criteria with a greater focus on undergraduate academic record and a lesser focus on leadership. One might presume that qualifying undergraduate academic record is much simpler than qualifying leadership, suggesting that perhaps the adcom is able to get through more applications faster than in previous years and hence the "wave" came through earlier... Thoughts?
"Bolton says that undergraduate grade point averages are getting more attention at Stanford. That shift is partly a reflection of the change in leadership at the school last year to Garth Saloner, an economist who taught management and strategy at Stanford since 1990, who succeeded Robert Joss, a former banking executive, as dean. “Garth is incredibly different than Bob,” says Bolton. 'Garth tilts more toward intellect, and Bob tilted more toward leadership potential.'"
https://poetsandquants.com/2010/10/06/stanford%E2%80%99s-b-school-gatekeeper-predicts-application-decline/