Interview Process

Cornell, Chicago are invitation only. UCLA I believe is not but "strongly suggested", but im not sure.

It makes sense that you get an interview before you hear back about the apps - your interview part of your application process.

So the timeline works like this (generally)

Apply
Wait a few weeks, hope for an interview invite
If you get one, go to the interview
Wait a few more weeks and hope for an accept

I know of no school that accepts without an interview. There may be one or two candidate exceptions due to circumstances, but all schools I've ever looked at report that 100% of admitted students had an interview, so without one you are dead.

GSB goes so far as to set a cutoff date for interviews - if you dotn get an invite by X, you've been denied. Those that make it past X, get to wait one more month to date Y, for a decision. Cornell just invites you, up to the last few days before the decision date. HBS does the same.

Thanks for clearing this up... I guess what confuses me is this:
When you submit by a certain deadline, they say that you will get a decision by date Y. And then they say Interviews are by invite only.

The time between the deadline and date Y is quite short (2 months?) how do they interview everyone they want and make decisions?

I actually asked the adcom at Stern, and their response was that sometimes your "decision" is actually an invite for interview.

So I guess they are kinda lying when they say that you are guaranteed a decision by date Y. What they really mean is, you will hear back something by date Y. And the real admit decision comes back at some unknown date X...

I sure hope I don't have to fly to NYC on a moment's notice at Christmas time!

I believe that the schools garantee you will hear one of the following: ding, admint, interview.

I know that UNC requires an interview and you are supposed to schedule it yourself. NYU is by invite only, they decide not you. Don't worry, if you get an invite than you will most likely have flexibility as to when to come for an interview. I never heard of a school expecting you to show up on a moment's notice