Stanford 2012 - Calling All Applicants

Were these two candidates from the waitlist pool? Or are they just too awesome?
This year?

Sorry about the silence from HBS and stanford. But I think we can say that there are no more invites going out. From an admissions standpoint it's a little too late. But I do have a theory that they wait list some people that they couldn't interview in time for the deadline. Hopefully you hear some positive news soon.

This whole application process has driven me crazy. What happened this morning shows that I am indeed crazy, or at least, not far from it.

(I just wrote the following on my facebook. It is not really application related. But you may read it for amusement.)

I got sick. So I am now sitting on my bed instead of working in the office.

When I am sick, I tend to have long sleeps and in my sleep I have weird dreams. This morning, before I woke up, I had this weird dream which was quite amusing.

The dream started in a shop where the saleswoman made me rather angry. On my way to somewhere else, I started quarreling with my girlfriend until I got tired of quarreling. In this process I somehow realized that I was dreaming.

I started to float in the air consciously and asked my girlfriend "Do you want to fly?" She asked "Is it possible?" I said "Look at me." Seeing me flying, she was surprised. I explained that she was actually in my dream and we decided to fly together.

We had a lot of fun before we went to a restaurant. The following conversation took place.

I said "It doesn't matter if you have won or lost the quarrel. I was in fact just quarreling with myself."

My girlfriend understood and smiled.

I said further "Do you think other people in this restaurant understand it? Let's have a try.'

I picked up a guy sitting at the table next to me and asked him.

"Do you exist?"

"Pardon? Say it again?"

"Where are you from? How did you come into existence?"

He told me about his parents, etc., etc.

I interrupted him and asked "But what if your existence is actually made up by someone else? Let's say, you exist in a novel." - I said novel instead of dream because I did not want to give him too much clue.

He said "It certainly doesn't feel so. When I want to do something, I do it." He stressed on the I's in his sentence. Obviously, he was saying that he felt that he had free will and therefore he really existed and was not made up by some novelist.

At this moment I woke up but continued to think about the dream. I couldn't ask myself the following questions.

Is there a real difference between this guy in my dream and us "real" people in the "real" world? If an omniscient God exists, we can say that effectively we exist only in his thought. It doesn't get better if you are a materialist and believe in science, since all the physical laws seem to suggest that our feeling of free will is just an illusion.

So, do we really exist? Is Descartes' "Cogito ergo sum" still that convincing?

Last year.

One guy mentioned that in the 2011 thread.

Another guy I knew from a colleague who finished his MBA at INSEAD a few months ago. Both my colleague and that friend of his are from Israel. He told me that his friend applied to Stanford Round 1 last year and got wait-listed. And afterwards, without being interviewed, he got an offer.

Last year.

One guy mentioned that in the 2011 thread.

Another guy I knew from a colleague who finished his MBA at INSEAD a few months ago. Both my colleague and that friend of his are from Israel. He told me that his friend applied to Stanford Round 1 last year and got wait-listed. And afterwards, without being interviewed, he got an offer.[/quote]


i guess the waitlist--->admit is possible but i doubt that people get in without an interview (and b4 being wait-listed i guess)..its kinda sad...i was looking thru the YAle thread and it seems so happy and full of acceptances...come tuesday/wednesday we will only be checking to see how many of the 8 people who got interviewed got accepted.talk about a slow day

Thanks. I must say your handle gave me a chuckle...I had this vision of "hmm...MBA or the 'adult entertainment' business". Could make for a hilarious pros/cons list!

Awake on NBC 10/9c

I think I'm the only person who thinks that Stanford is forthright about their process up front. I knew that if I didn't receive an invite by last week that it was probably not going to happen at Stanford. We all went into this application knowing that they do not have a mid decision release date. Do I prefer that method to Stanford's. Maybe? It does put people out of their misery sooner. But we're all insightful individuals and should be able to read the writing on the wall. Stanford interviews all admitted candidates (by invitation only). It's less than a week from the final decision day and we haven't been invited to interview. Therefore, we haven't been admitted. Does it suck? Yes, because rejection always sucks. However, I don't feel that Stanford has promised us any more info than what they've provided. They've stuck to what they said they would do. We signed up for this when we forked over $265 and hit submit.

Besides, who needs palm trees anyways

Cheets,
I am not saying that they have stabbed us in the back by saying they will give us a decision and they didn't! I agree we signed the dotted line knowing that there is no mid-decision date but why cannot there be one? It helps give a closure to a person.

Besides, why did u assume that ur chances are there till the last week? Because someone last year got one, right? It's not that Stanford told u about it! So why can't they be forthright about the day by which they have read ALL the applications and done the initial sifting and selected the interviewees? Why give this agony till the last day.

Btw: I know of a fellow applicant who got an admit from UCLA by getting an interview invite ONLY three days before the final deadline - end Jan!! and that too when he/she had not heard anything from them on the mid-interview decision date deadline (mid Dec)! Beat that

Palm trees ..... Hmmmmmmm

I get what you're saying. I figured that last week would be the end of invites because the email they sent after I submitted said they would send invites up to a week before the decision day. I didn't look through last year's thread to see when the last invite went out.

Yes I do think a mid decision day is more humane. But look at the Booth thread. There was a bunch of weeping and gnashing of teeth over that one too and it was spelled out pretty clearly when we would know by. Feb. 15 was the release date and people were asking to be put out of their misery if they weren't invited after the first 2 days. I don't think anything short of instant acceptance would satisfy people. You combine ambition with insecurity and nerves and that's pretty much your average MBA applicant. Just trying to put it into a different perspective. Besides Stanford is such a black box that any application is like a hail Mary pass. People who we think should be shoo-ins to get in don't even get interviewed while others who do get the coveted acceptance make us scratch our heads and say WTF. For all we know Stanford spreads the printed applications on its vast lawn and has a goat select which apps it likes. Maybe we were the unlucky ones and the Stanny goat didn't eat our apps. Meh, oh well.

Now the UCLA thing is just brutal. What's the point of a mid decision release date if you don't release the person you're not inviting?! That's just a mind f#$% right there.

Attn: Stanny Goat
Please eat my app
xoxo,
LRW

Exactly. The argument isn't about whether they live up to their promises, it's about a better process than what we have. I absolutely agree with the a need for greater transparency, although I can't say there's a school which has been perfect in this process. Look at Harvard's ability to "release" applicants within 35 days of receiving such a high volume of applicants. I have the distinct feeling HBS ditches so many people because they kick out the applicants which don't meet their "list"...not from a top 25 undergrad - OUT...not from investment banking or consulting - OUT...etc. I don't believe for one moment HBS is capable of thoroughly evaluating every applicant's credentials, which is HOW they are able to kick out so many applicants so quickly.

Now, I like to pretend Stanford & MIT are more thorough with their evaluations which is WHY they don't have a mid-decision date. Personally, I'd rather someone (or multiple people) take real time to evaluate my application instead of kicking me out for some arbitrary reason such as which undergrad I selected 16 years ago. That being said, there is a moment every applicant has a final review and a decision is made to either interview, waitlist or reject. There is NO reason a school can't do the simple courtesy of notifying the candidate if the application has been rejected. The $265 fee should be plenty to cover the cost of someone going into the system with the daily/weekly rejects and clicking the box in the system to send the auto-denial letter. There is no reason to keep applicants waiting unnecessarily when decisions have already been made.

In my opinion, there are two things which would improve the Stanford process. 1) the above...notify candidates as soon as there's no more hope 2) interview more candidates. Since Stanford uses Alumni interviews (which likely costs them nothing), there's NO reason getting an interview from Stanford should be harder than getting accepted by many other schools. Why not interview more students and hear their stories 1st hand? You might be surprised what you find out there...

but looking at past threads i think it was very unlikely for people to get an interview this week. I just think that no one wanted to be the one to say it.

anyway hopefully on tuesday..the mood will be better

Hilarious.

And gone4it I actually think Stanford interviews enough applicants. They interview 1000 applicants for 350 spots. Don't u think that's enough. I mean if they interviewed more people they would only be giving more false hope to the admissions pool. It's great to get an interview but it's even better to actually get in. What's the point of more people getting interviewed if the class size is going to stay the same. I mean...the fact that an applicant did not receive an interview means that they may not have stood out in comparison to the general pool.

Posted from my mobile device

Interviewing is not about "feeling good" or "giving false hope". It's not about feeling like you have a 1/3 chance or you beat 85% of everyone else getting one. It should be about using the interview to get a more holistic understanding of the applicant. Kellogg & Tuck interview all applicants. I've heard that by the time Stanford interviews someone they're already "accepted" and the interview primarily serves to identify which candidates are a good culture fit for the school. They only using Alumni, so what's the harm in expanding the purpose and use it to do more? I've been told I'm a very good writer, and I personally felt like my "what matters most" was some of the best writing I've ever done (though obviously the subject matter - me - sucked ). However, not all applicants communicate their story as effectively in writing as they could in an interview. Likewise, candidates with 10yrs of experience are forced to address only examples from the last 3 years in their essays. I'm sure there are many other scenarios where candidates' applications would benefit from an interview.

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