Toby Stock call Forum

[bennyblanco]

Sorry Toby

[GoCats]

I got the first call today and went complete in mid December. He was very pleasant and it was a good conversation, but it definitely goes by quickly. Best of luck to the rest of you and those of us waiting for that 2nd call now!

[Ben Matlock]

Yikes, we got a 174/3.87 and a 174/3.85... come to papa!

Edit: I wrote 3.7 and 3.5 - sorry to get everyone's hopes up

[brink123]

Yikes, we got a 174/3.7 and a 174/3.5... come to papa!

[alexb240]

Congrats on the call! I'm holding out hope for ya, Matlock.

[brokendowncar]

In a literal sense, there are no auto-admits into Harvard. You know that, and I know that.

In a literal sense, this might be true. In practice, everyone (except one in 03) 175+ and 3.96+ GPA has gotten in on LSN.
06-07 18-0
05-06 20-0
04-05 10-0
03-04 4-0-1

While not a huge sample, that seems like pretty much an auto admit to me.

FTR, the one waitlist out of the whole sample was a 175 with "No ECs or work experience"

[bennyblanco]

I know. I was just being a wiseass.

[brokendowncar]

I was mostly doing the research because I found it interesting to see what it takes to consider yourself a lock for HLS, and figured I would post my results. It might help someone?

[00TREX00]

...

[Ben Matlock]

Oops, I meant 174/3.87 and 174/3.85.

[nipplehead]

i still have received no damn e-mail for the H-bomb interview call.

i thought my numbers gave me a good shot, too.

WHY TOBY STOCK WHY??

[bennyblanco]

How dare you presume to be an acceptable candidate for admission?!?! Didn't you hear what Hitachi said? His numbers are better than yours, and he hasn't gotten a call.

[Aries]

Speaking of numbers- Does anyone think maybe numbers stop mattering for those falling more or less in HLS' 50th percentile... ? I would think that after a certain point the hundreds of 3.7something / 170 somethings would become sort of interchangable, and that it would then all come down to softs. Thoughts?

[AccidentallySupercilious]

Congrats to those getting calls!

For what it's worth, I believe Dean Stock makes ~1100 first-round calls. Of those, about ~850 or so are accepted via a second call. Nobody who is accepted does not go through a first-round call.

Alex, any ideas what differentiates the accepted callees from the non-accepted?

[brokendowncar]

I am not alex, but I would bet the call has very little to do with it. Toby's blog says it is just another small part of the whole package, so I bet it is just a way to bump up a few borderline people.

[bennyblanco]

OK, so, now my status checker says that I'm under review, but I haven't got a complete email.

Is that supposed to happen?

Still haven't gotten a call, either. For those that have... my GPA is slightly above the 25 (it's from the U of Chi, if that makes any difference), my LSAT, slightly above the 75. I hate asking people about their numbers, but I'm curious as to how ours compare. You don't want to give specifics, fine.

[alexb240]

Well, there are a variety of theories as to what purpose the call serves in the admissions decision.

Firstly, I think it's fairly clear that those who are called early on in the cycle have a very strong chance of being accepted. At this stage, I think the call may be little more than a 'psycho screen'; that is, behave yourself and sound somewhat intelligent, and you're in.

As the cycle progresses, it makes sense to believe that the call may be more of a shibboleth. As has been noted elsewhere, there are a lot of applicants floating around with 172-175, 3.6-3.8 (or what-have-you). It strikes me as likely that an interview in which you come across as intelligent, enthusiastic, interesting, and knowledgeable about why you're a good fit at HLS (as opposed to its competitors) is probably a plus in your file akin to having a good PS or an interesting soft factor.

brokendowncar, you say that you think the call has "very little to do with" whether one is accepted or not. To an extent, I agree with that -- after all, there's not that much that you can say to differentiate yourself in a six-to-ten minute interview. However, I think that the call still has an important place in the application. Think of the amount of time it probably takes Dean Stock to interview ~1100 people. He wouldn't do that if there wasn't something he was actually trying to get out of the call. If you perform poorly in a phone interview, that's got to be a bad sign -- especially if you have borderline numbers.

One further thing to consider is that I've heard it rumored that all Harvard undergrads are given a 'courtesy call' regardless of their numbers. If that's true (I have no idea if it is or isn't), it would inflate the number of calls being made.

[underdawg]

Yeah what Alex said.

If your numbers are weak for them, it might be a chance for you to wow Toby.

[bennyblanco]

Wait, isn't the GPA range 3.9-3.7? How did I pick that up?

[nipplehead]

well, that's all well and good, but i can't wow Toby if he won't even call me.

*sulks*

[underdawg]

Alex meant people with the weaker numbers (for HLS anyway), when he said the 3.5-x thing, I think.

[underdawg]

Hey nip, when did you apply?

[alexb240]

I don't know exactly what the GPA range is. My point was simply that there are probably a lot of applicants who are floating around with median GPAs and LSATs somewhere between the 25th percentile and the median. For those students, I think performance on the phone interview may be an important deciding factor.

bennyblanco, although I don't know what your LSAT score is, I wouldn't be surprised if you're a late acceptance. UChicago is (in)famous for grade deflation, and adcomms realize that. I'd bet that they'll mentally add on .1 or .2 to your 'listed' GPA. I'd guess that you won't be admitted immediately because your GPA as it stands won't help the rankings, but once HLS has gobbled up all of the stellar GPAs that it can I wouldn't be surprised if they gave you a ring.

[nipplehead]

Hey nip, when did you apply?

late October. i went complete in early December.

i think, at this point, i'm in trouble. probably looking at a WL at best.

it's no big deal, as much as i whine and bitch about it. i'd be perfectly happy attending one of the schools i've already gotten into, especially since then i wouldn't have to be surrounded by Red Sox fans

[bennyblanco]

Sorry Toby