<p>I’ve been to meetings with two different Stanford admission officers in the last month, and students asking them questions have asked whether Stanford offers interviews as part of the admission process. Currently Stanford does not, of course, and that is the simple answer to that question, but the longer answer is that Stanford is still studying the issue of how to implement interviews as part of the admission process and how to mobilize its worldwide alumni base to do interviews right. The most recent word I have heard on this subject is that there may be a pilot program of experimental interviews, done not so much to evaluate the applicants as to evaluate the role and feasibility of interviews in the admission process, for some subset of applicants in high school class of 2009. If and only if that experiment, which should have no influence on the admission chances (good or bad) of the participants, is successful, then there may be a full roll-out of interviews for essentially all applicants a la Harvard, Yale, or Princeton as soon as when high school class of 2010 applies to Stanford. </p>
<p>It makes sense that Stanford’s admission office would be open to studying this issue under the leadership of Richard Shaw, who formerly had the comparable position at Yale. How to make the transition smoothly is doubtless the main implementation issue to consider.</p>