He said he's mainly free on Fridays and tries to make calls then. Though, he did say that since the interview season is over for NYU, he's going to have more free time throughout the week to make calls.
Also, just wanted to post some additional information that Dean Rivera mentioned during today's session (in the name of transparency and trying to help out everyone's neuroticism haha).
If he makes calls for acceptances, it's going to be from a 212 area code, and will call twice (in case you ignore the first call thinking that he is a scam caller haha).
He also emphasized that the decision of CR is not a waitlist position, simply a pool of applicants that have not been rejected and are in the running for an acceptance. The actual waitlist will not be determined until mid-Jan at the earliest. He also mentioned that a good number of applicants are granted an acceptance from the waitlist later in the cycle (I wrote down 30-40 acceptances, but I could have misheard, so take this with a grain of salt).
Regarding letters of intent/interest - they make absolutely no impact pre-decision. Letters of intent (as in NYU is your absolute top choice and you will attend their institution with 100% certainty given the opportunity) will only matter in situations where someone is on the waitlist later in the cycle, in April (obviously not a guarantee, but something they consider in those circumstances).
He said once all 120-ish acceptances have been given out, then WL or Rs are assigned to the rest of those who are designated as CR (likely around mid-Jan).
One other super small thing that I felt compelled to mention. Of all of my interviews, Dean Rivera is the only Dean who openly expressed a distaste for the ranking system that US News generates (essentially said those rankings don't matter, and they never mattered, even when NYU was ranked #2 in the nation). Honestly, this was such a green flag when I heard this, especially from a school where everyone assumes is trying to "game the system" in trying to climb the rankings. Legit the only Dean that has openly disregarded those rankings during an interview day I attended, which was so refreshing to hear.
Dean Rivera, if you're reading this, you're a G hahah (also, I really appreciate the spreadsheet tip you gave us about choosing a medical school!!)
