Toby Stock call Forum

[brokendowncar]

They accept roughly 80% of the people they call. I think that it is more like they have a good idea of what they are going to do with your application before they call you, but they are leaving it open just in case. Say you're on the border of being accepted and have a great interview, then they bump you up. It isn't going to take an auto admit down into waitlist staus or anything. Don't stress too much, it isn't the LSAT.

[tillicollpase]

So, what you seem to say is that they give a call to auto-admits and people below, and they take the auto-admits unless there's something seriously wrong with them and bump up the people below if they have fantastic one but reject if theirs is not super-standard.

cf. Call everyone in the auto-admit or likely category, and kill those with bad interview.

BTW, where did you get the 80% number?

[the5man]

BTW, where did you get the 80% number?

On his blog, Dean Stock says he'll make somewhere around 1100 calls this cycle. Harvard admits 'round 850.

(This is based on memory. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.)

[sophie22]

how do you know you're complete at Harvard, is it an email? If I applied on 12/04/07 and still haven't heard anything other than the fact that they have my application and just recently got an email about a survey, so they do know I exist. Should I contact them asking the status of my application? Anyway, good luck to all with the phone calls.

I applied on the same day, and just got my complete email today. Haven't gotten any phone calls though...

[jonnybeard]

I got the interview email last Friday (1/11), had my TS1 yesterday (1/16), and got my "app complete" email first thing this morning.

I honestly don't think the phone interview is anything to stress about. I'm officially the world's worst interviewer and I thought my call went fine--I don't believe I said anything to either make or break my application. It's so quick that it just barely falls into the "interview" category at all. You know for sure he will ask you what you're doing with your time lately, you know for sure he will ask you if you've narrowed down your post-law school plans, and you know for sure that he will ask you if you have any questions for him. Other than that, he picks a couple of things off your resume and asks you about them. I'm sure that if you're an extremely gregarious person, the interview can help you out a little bit...and it's POSSIBLE that if you're a painfully awkward person, it might hurt you a bit, though I'm less convinced of this--if you've got 180/4.0, let's face it, you're in. But I have a feeling that for those of us who fall in the middle of the curve when it comes to social skills, the interview is nothing to sweat.

That's my groundless speculation for the day...

[brokendowncar]

And good groundless speculation, if I had to guess.

[snap]

Got the email!

[USCtrojan86]

snap-

stats?

[nipplehead]

early congrats, snap

[snap]

174/3.87

It's obviously not a guarantee, but it's not a bad sign.

[brokendowncar]

Congrats! Don't stress out. You'll be just fine.

[Ben Matlock]

Congrats, snap. Just a tad jealous... my GPA is a few .0x lower than yours.

[USCtrojan86]

Congats from me as well...and I second the jealousy thing, we're virtually numbers twins ...except for one little LSAT point

[nipplehead]

i third the jealousy

[Aries]

I understand 80% if they only admit people they call... But does everyone admitted in fact get a call, or only those that aren't auto-admits or on the fence?

[idrinkcoffee]

...

[Aries]

Thanks coffee.

I guess I'm just missing the point of the phone call. How much can they possibly tell from 5 minutes anyway?

Also, does anyone know if anything in the app besides GPA/LSAT/URM stuff matters remotely? Do they even read that?

[snap]

It seems as if Toby wants to see "how you interact with a human being over the phone" (paraphrased from his admissions blog). Fair enough.

[Aries]

Odd.

I saw you said you got an email from him recently, Snap. Any calls yet?

[the5man]

TS2!!!

[snap]

Congrats!!!!

[snap]

Nope, no call as of yet...

[Aries]

Well, whenever it happens, good luck!

[brokendowncar]

Congrats, the5man!

[hobbla]

I got his call yesterday, he seemed like a very nice guy.

He asked me several questions about my resume and the various activities I was doing.

I got the impression from the blog that he is mostly trying to keep out mean/pretentious/etc. people and giving some borderline applicants a chance to bump themselves up.