Oxford (Said) 2013 - Calling All Applicants

Someone please explain the rationale of this unique behaviour

@wouldbecrazy

i suppose they want to verify the authenticity of all the documentation before giving out a final call..

That would be a filmsy excuse to complicate the already complicated process and incurring extra cost and hassle for nothing!!

Most of the schools does that during matriculation .. so they are not as smart as Said, right?

Too many people are selected in Said and many does not take the offer, for example Paras, Ducks, etc. Why to burden them as well as many people interviewed but not selected with this unnecessary step?

Is this followed for all candidates or followed for RANDOMLY selected few?

Did they received too many FAKE applications in the past so they had to take this additional step?

Assuming that there were fake applications in the past, for the time being suspending the ethical part, if those fake people were selected by Said and had to reject due to faking, then that either means educational transcripts does not truly depict a candidate or Said selection method is flawed.

MBA admission process is already not so straight forward and some schools are unnecessarily complicating the process without any practical gain. And the most serious issue, they are doing it selectively.

Sorry, I am not targeting Said, it is a general observation, applicable to quite a few schools.

Thoughts please

am not advocating the practice, just trying to guess the purpose..
i agree that it is strange for any college to ask for these docs before the final decisions..

Sorry Bro, absolutely nothing against you. My apologies.

I was just questioning the whims of some schools.

And if you look at their personal data privacy standards, it is just pathetic. Most of the people there even never heard of it!! Some of the schools are openly showing personal information such as name, DOB, Passport No on their web. Not directly, but if you know how to get inside a website, it is so easy!!

well, let's just hold our horses and hope they have a good reason for it..

any idea how many applicants are there in the current round and what was the ratio of # of calls to total # of applicants last year?

Great, keep that positive views always.

If anyone finds it useful, a few remarks:

* I was asked to send original transcripts once I had been invited for interview. They did say that they would not release a final decision until they had received those transcripts. So yes, as unusual as it sounds, you do need to send them original transcripts if you want to hear from them if you were accepted or not.

* In this forum I read about a candidate who interviewed and did not send his/her transcripts on time. A few days after decisions had been released he/she called the admissions office to enquire and was then told that he had been accepted, but an "official" e-mail could not be sent until official transcripts were received.

* I have no bloody idea of why they do this, but I reckon they had very bad experiences in the past. Nevertheless, I would also take it as a good indication that if you are invited to interview chances are very high you will get admitted. My very biased sample of people I contacted in this forum, would tell me that maybe 3/4 of interviews become offers.

Agree with everything except this:


If you interview in person, you need to bring your original transcripts with you to show them. If you interview over the phone, you can send certified copies like I did and receive your final decision.

Maybe there is a difference in what we mean by original transcripts?

Where I was an undergrad, they would give you as many "official" transcripts as needed (for a small fee of course). They are just regular printed sheets of paper but in a nice and sealed envelope, signed across.

You may be right - the definition changes with where you went to school. I was referring to the bond-paper printed, embossed original transcript which some schools give out - not those unlimited supply, sealed envelope ones. I'll edit my post above.

No, no... no need to edit anything Your university seems to be a lot posher than mine Because of your nickname I reckon you went Stanford or something nice like that.

@ kaushinside , CptBrightside, Leftcoastguy - Thanks for your inputs.

May I ask if they send you a confirmation e-mail when they receive your transcripts, particularly if you have multiple transcripts to send? Also, does everyone receive an e-mail decision on the interview date (either interview or rejection)? I was reviewing previous posts from this year and it appears so, but I just wanted to make sure. I agree that the wait is horrible- I wish everyone the best!

Yes and Yes

Good luck!!

Guys... I interviewed on campus... the admissions staff returned the originals after photo copying. The documents asked were my passport (relevant pages) and my undergrad transcript (the one page paid ones that typical Indian Uni. provides)
FYI… NYU also has the same transcript policy as Oxford.

Yes I got the interview invite and the admission offer over email. (no phone calls)

Good luck

Actually, I had to e-mail them to ask if they had received my transcripts, but they replied literally within a couple of minutes.