<p>It’s a tricky balancing act to achieve. As someone who has been an EC (interviewer) for some years now, there is this perception that a majority of students have that they even if they get in, everyone else on the MIT campus will be a genius, and that they being merely extremely bright will somehow not fit in. Indeed, I see it talking to the admitted students from my region every year, at least a few each year who, while they are delighted to be accepted, are vaguely worried that perhaps the admissions office might have made a mistake in admitting them. And of course it isn’t close to true. I’ve met these kids, I know how wonderful they are. I am not sure how to stress any harder the idea that most students will not get in, without discouraging some of the best candidates from applying. And I am writing this as an international EC, dealing with an admit rate which I expect will be lower than 3% this year. </p>
<p>As to those with a bad interview experience, please tell us, even anonymously. There are more than 3000 of us, the Regional Chairs work very hard to ensure that their EC’s are well trained, well supported, and know what the interview should be. But since we are all volunteers, occasional lapses happen. If you had an interviewer who never made eye contact, or worse, said something awful about the school, drop me a line or MITChris, and we will try to help, or at least ensure it does not happen again. We would really appreciate knowing.Sometimes it is a matter of more training for an individual EC, sometimes something more, but we cannot make things better if we do not know about it. And of course, the overwhelming majority of of EC’s that I know, are some of the finest, most interesting folks that I have ever met.</p>