At any point after the process begins you might get an invitation to interview. In general, we have an invitation policy so not everyone is invited to interview. Some people might get invited very early, while others will get invited very late in the process and some won’t receive an invitation at all.

　　Once Phil or Sharon has confirmed receipt of all components of an application, then the review process starts. Generally there will be two members of our committee who will review and rate the file. And by file I mean the aggregate collection of the application, letters of recommendation, transcripts, everything. Each of the persons that read the file will provide a rating. In addition to the rating there will be some summary comments that set up the applicant’s strengths, weaknesses and potential to contribute to the class in the context of the overall applicant pool for the class under consideration.

　　In addition to the reviewers there is the interviewer, if an applicant is invited to interview. Most of the time the interviewer is a third person, so more than half of the time there are three people who have spent a significant amount of time with a given candidate’s application.

　　In terms of the rating reviewers provide to an application, we have a scale. We assign a point value from 1 through 5. But I want to stress that we don’t use a formula to arrive at this point value. The rating is a way for us to assess each applicant we review based on a scale of all the people we have read this year and what we know the bar to be in our current pool. So, for example, a 2 this year might not be as competitive as a 2 last year was. The rating is only done so we can see it relative to other candidates in a given pool. There is no official calculation that produces the number.

　　After all of the applications for a given round have been read, we then review as a committee. In terms of notification, we generally stick to the date that we promise for each batch, though sometimes there might be a specific reason why someone might hear earlier or a decision might need to be held.

　　For each batch we hold a series of admissions committee meetings. The number depends on how many applicants we review in that round. Every applicant is assigned to a region, generally geographically based. One person on the committee is responsible for each region.

　　For those who are interested, we also have a video of a mock committee showing how we review applications. We really want people to know what it is we talk about.

　　In the committee meetings the region manager will present each applicant in his or her region, providing a profile of the candidate, a summary of the ratings they’ve gotten from each reviewer and then any highlights. Based on these presentations and group discussion, we then come to a consensus as a committee of whether it’s an admit, a possibly, or a not going to happen.

　　I believe very strongly that if a person takes the time and submits an application they deserve our complete review. So even if we see something early on that suggests an applicant may not be the right fit, that person still gets their day. Because sometimes all of the upfront signs may point to “not going to happen,” but when you look at the whole thing together it tells a different story.

　　In terms of the interview specifically, I think I mentioned before that from the time a person starts the application we are sweeping the pool for individual components that stand out as perhaps being among the competitive group. And whenever we spot such a component, we might invite an applicant to interview.

　　We do interviews by invitation not because we want to screen out great people. Rather, we don’t want to waste a candidate’s time or our interviewers’ time. Interviews very often are helpful, but even the best interview can’t save someone who doesn’t have the other things that it is going to take to be competitive.

　　Having said that, anytime we see something about a candidate that says, “Hey, this might put them in a very competitive spot,” we’ll consider inviting them in for an interview. Sometimes it might be a really strong GMAT score, other times it’s a letter of recommendation that really stands out. The way we look at it, it’s in our interest to let you know as soon as possible if we might want to interview you.

　　For this reason, I advise applicants that no matter when you plan to apply, you should go ahead and start populating your application. Because the earlier you start putting some of these other pieces in the earlier you might get an invitation to interview. It might be that you have a unique background from a part of the world we don’t have in our current class. It could be your GMAT score. It could be that really stand-out letter of recommendation. You don’t ever know what the component might be that jumps out to us. Because really it can be any combination of components. And for some people it’s not until someone reads that whole application and says, “Gosh, this is a good story.” They might not really stand out on resume, GMAT, or GPA, but when I look at all of the pieces together they might get that invitation.

　　We have a team of alumni who have been trained to interview on behalf of admissions, so if people are located in parts of the world where it’s not feasible to come to campus for an interview they can interview with a representative in their region. Anywhere between 35 to 40 percent of our applicants are from outside of the United States.

　　I do want to underscore that it is not an expectation on our part that you come to visit. Now, we do think you can make a better decision about where you fit or belong if you visit, but I don’t want to discourage or take out of consideration some excellent people for whom a visit is just not a possibility.