Cookiz

Thanks for the quick reply! That's what I thought too (that they wouldn't do any interview and just directly admit/reject people)! But the previous posts made me doubt that... @.@ and right, good luck to everyone!

Does Stanford GSE require an interview for ALL the admitted applicants into their PhD program (SHIPS)? i.e., if we have NOT received an email inviting us for an interview, should we assume that we are rejected?

No problem! I in fact don't think it was clear from my initial post that I'm currently working in the US :). Good luck anyway! Keep faith!

I am indeed an "international candidate" but I have been living/working in the USA for more than 1.5 years now (which you can easily tell from my CV) so I don't think your hypothesis about time difference is valid (sorry about that)...?

Ah, thanks a lot for the information! I didn't know that the SoP was so important for applications... I mean it doesn't seem to be for PhD programs in Economics at least... but glad to hear that I haven't written for nothing then :). And thanks for the wishes! Sure, will keep you posted! ------ @imagical: Congrats to you, too! as well as all the other finalists! This weekend will be quite stressful... huh... but fingers crossed! ------ I also received it in my inbox (they sent it to my Gmail address).

Hi everyone! I'm new to this forum and this is my first post :). I have received an email from Harvard GSE earlier today to inform me that I have been shortlisted for the interview stage. The interview will be conducted next Monday. I must say I am positively surprised and very happy, but I am also quite stressed about it... and was hoping to find some information about that interview on this forum. In the meantime, if that helps, below is some information about my application. Program/Concentration: PhD in Education, EPPE concentrationGRE Score: V 154 (65%), Q 167 (92%), AW 5.5 (98%) [I only studied for the quantitative section... I know my verbal score is low but I’m a foreigner [French], so I'm counting on the committee to be clement here .] TOEFL Score: 110/120 (Writing 30/30, Reading 27/30, Speaking 27/30, Listening 26/30) GPA: N/A (because I studied in France and my school doesn't provide any averages, but I had honors in my undergrad and was Summa Cum Laude in my Masters program in Economics & Public Policy)Work Experience: a 3-month summer internship at the OECD Directorate for Education and Skills when I was a Masters student Undergrad/Grad Institution (Public, Private, Ivy, etc..): top French "Grande Ecole" in social sciences, for both my undergrad and masters Research Experience: 1 Masters thesis & 2.5 years of RAship for professors of economics (including 1.5+ years with a professor of economics at a US top school) LoR/SoP: 2 from professors I RA'ed for (with one of them, I also took an undergrad-level econ course), 1 from my Master's thesis supervisor (I also took two of his grad-level econ courses and RA'ed for him but it was only data collection stuff), and 1 from one of my grad econometrics professors (he's the only senior prof among my recommenders). My SoP was quite standard, I guess (?): I talked about my academic background and my research experiences, why I wanted to pursue a PhD program in Education (I'm mostly interested in economics of education), what questions I'd like to address and briefly how I plan to tackle these, and which professors I'd be interested in working with. What Other Schools Are You Applying To: several PhD programs... mostly in economics, but another one in education at Stanford GSE, and 2 in public policy at Harvard Kennedy and Chicago Harris. Hope this helps. Good luck to everyone! And, if anyone has any advice/information regarding the interview, I would greatly appreciate if you could share! Thanks a lot!