From a mother: I would say to ALWAYS take an interview. Words on a page are no substitute for human connection. Neither are words on a screen. My son applied REA, and I would literally drive all night for an in person…just my two cents plain. 
Got my email about an interview today. I’m excited! Six weeks seems so far away
Not every applicant is offered an interview, even if you live outside California/Bay Area. There just aren’t enough alumni volunteers to get every corner of the world let alone the US. You might get offered a video chat interview. And the interviews are organized by alumni volunteers, so timing isn’t as batched as other parts of your application experience.
As an interviewer here’s my 2 cents:
Take the interview! Our goal is to have a free-flowing conversation with you to get to know you as a person and get you excited about Stanford. We want to know what motivates your passions. Just be yourself and have a conversation like you would have with any other adult in a professional setting.
Our comments have only a very vague impact on your admissions package, and interviewers aren’t there to interrogate your application. Just make sure you’ve thought through why you’re interested in Stanford, and be polite and respectful. It’s really pretty difficult to bomb an interview - and even if you feel like it was awkward, chances are it wasn’t actually that bad. And a neutral evaluation isn’t going to ruin your application.
Basically, interviews are no big deal. Your alumni interviewer is just a normal person with some personal knowledge of the school you’ve applied to. We’re not gatekeepers. Speaking for myself, I do interviews because I loved my time at Stanford so much that I’ll take any chance to talk about it. And alumni interviews are an appropriate, non-snooty venue to talk about it.
And finally, if you don’t want to take the interview, that’s no big deal. Just please, please actually respond to the email and decline. We are assigned a certain number of interviews to do it’s really annoying to wait and wait for a reply because we’re supposed to try all the avenues of contact (email, text, phone) before we can in good conscience put into the system that the applicant declined the interview.
@geraniol I read the sentence: “Just make sure you’ve thought about why you’re interested in Stanford” and then remembered my answer to the short answer question “Name one thing you are looking forward to experiencing at Stanford”… … …
I literally wrote the most basic answer…ugh…it’s fine I’ll survive lol. If I say some BS like “It’s not the college I go to, it’s what I make of the college” to the interviewer…how will that be taken? :’))))
Did any one receive an email Subject “Diversity at Stanford” from Assistant Dean for Diversity Outreach? Does it mean something for the Stanford applicants who got this email?
what did you write for that supplement?
For people who applied for financial aid, is there a specific checklist box in your Stanford portal for FAFSA or CSS?
@slumbermachine No but there is a checkbox for Stanford on the FAFSA form. Not sure about CSS because I haven’t done it yet.
@cuteraspberries If you told me that during an interview, I’d probably say yes that’s very true, but now since we’re at a Stanford interview tell me why you want to go to Stanford instead of Cal
Did anyone receive an email from Stanford, the subject is “Diversity at Stanford”?
@Yijinjing I didn’t but some others apparently did? What was it ?
Very generic… it starts with " Diversity has been a core value at Stanford…", at the end of the letter, there are links for websites of diversity and inclusion
I also applied REA. My interview/extracurriculars/grades/test scores/scholarships/awards are pretty good… Also, I have quadruple legacy at Stanford. My dad, grandma, grandpa, and great-grandpa all went there, so I feel like if I get in, it will be because of that only. Stanford said that legacies have a 3x greater chance of getting in, but I find that hard to believe. Does anyone have some input on this?
It’s true about legacies get in at about 40% of the class, Stanford and Princeton et al. To make up for the guilt/privilege, they then accept 18% free lunch kids, a bunch (approx. per their own website states 20%) of first gen, then a bunch of “diversity,”…leaving a very very few for just the regular “good 'ole,” exceptional top of the heap kid of any middle class whatever race background…
forgot about athletes…
@BeCheap4me2
Legacies make up just under 20% of the Stanford class…still too high, but much less than the 40% you claim. They are admitted at a rate of about 3x that of non legacies, so roughly 14% chance of admission.
Two questions: if I put “White (Middle East)” on my application, am I part of this “Diversity”? Also, my grandpa and two uncles all went to Stanford, so am I a legacy?
In past years, hasn’t Stanford release their decision a week early??? I’m thinking it will be released on December 7 or 8 this year, but this is definitely based on dates in college decision reactions videos lol
@cuteraspberries aunts/uncles don’t count as legacies. Did you fill out the legacy section of the application?
The early result is always released on Friday right prior to Dec 15.