So the official word I got is that it’s a great idea for interviewers (EC’s) to reach out to the applicants they were unable to interview for whatever reason and were deferred. They suggest the EC"s wait a week or so before contacting anyone in case deferred students were accepted elsewhere and thus plan to withdraw their MIT application.
Here’s my personal suggestion. If you were deferred and were not interviewed, wait a week and if you are not contacted by an EC, email MIT and let them know you’re interested in having the interview you weren’t able to have for EA.
Hope this helps those who are wondering.
Thanks for this info; does it also apply if the applicant was never contacted by any EC?
@wykehamist I think it especially applies to those applicants who were never contacted. Let’s face it, some EC’s never contacted their applicants because they were unaware the process changed this year – yes they were told several times. I think many of those EC’s are now aware, but may think it’s too late for EA applicants. Again, not sure if they read 100% of the emails they get from the Admissions Office. Nevertheless, reminding MIT that you were never contacted and you still would like an interview is a good thing.
I’m guessing that no one in the admissions office will be reading their email on December 24th (a week after your post).
No response to an email sent this past Thursday. Called on Friday and was told that file was “in the inbox” for the EC, as if this was totally normal and appropriate. When should he expect to hear from the EC? Don’t know - just wait.
Because DS attends a boarding school, and we live near NYC, he called back to propose an interview near home, instead of waiting until after he’s back at school. Admissions suggested he email that message to a different address than admissions (interview “at” mit.edu).
Mentioning this here in case that is of help to anyone else.
@wykehamist I believe someone from admissions does read the emails sent to interview@mit.edu
There is a much longer window in January for interviews, so I would assume that if you are in the USA near
a city, you can get an interview in January. If you hear nothing, ping MIT again. There will be a lot of Skype interviews available near the middle to end of January as well, so thats another option, in some areas. The interview will be waived if you or your student were available but MIT could not find anyone to interview you.
There is also a large network of international interviewers in many parts of the world.
Thanks @Coloradomama - yesterday DS heard back from Admissions, and from an EC near his boarding school, proposing to schedule an interview in the next two weeks.
@espressomac Thank you for this thread and for sharing this information on interviews. My son applied EA and was never contacted by an EC for an interview. We live in the DC metro area. My son did contact Admissions back in November to ask about the interview and was told what he already knew, which was that not everyone can be interviewed. His application was deferred to Regular Decision. He contacted admissions again and asked if the EA applicants that weren’t interviewed would be interviewed with the RD applicants. He was told pretty much what you said, which is that they were instructed to reach out to the EA applicants. My son waited patiently. This past week he found out that a classmate of his who applied RD was contacted for an interview and some of his friends at other schools who applied RD were also contacted for interviews. He contacted admissions again to make sure that the EC had his correct email and to make sure that he wasn’t being contacted because his email address might have been typed incorrectly. They assured him his email address was fine. At this point all he can do is wait and see if he’s contacted, but he’s made it more than clear to admissions that he would very much like the opportunity to interview. (He checks his email, including SPAM, daily.) Is it wrong of me to assume that if his EC hasn’t contacted him yet, that it’s not going to happen? I know the EC’s are busy, but you’d think they’d try to reach out to the the EA applicants before the RD applicants. At least that’s how I’d do it. I would love your thoughts on my son’s situation.
@VAMom2019 One thing I can suggest is that your son send an email to the interviewer of his classmate and ask for the email of the Regional Coordinator. The interviewer will not know who your son was assigned to, but the RC will. Your son’s EC may be MIA…it happens. But the RC can then request a re-assignment. As an RC myself, i would not be bothered at all to be contacted for that reason.
@espressomac Thank you. I will share your suggestion with my son. I appreciate your input and thoughts on this.
@VAMom2019 Don’t give up hope until the third week of February. MIT is going to SKYPE interview a number of candidates in larger cities where there are not enough interviewers. Its not your sons fault and in no way reflects anything in his application. Its truly random luck with how interviews are divided up, and chances are , he still may get a SKYPE or even regular interviewer, if someone in the DC area has time now, we are just finishing writing reports, and MIT is asking for SKYPE volunteers now to continue this process for a few more weeks. The Regional Coordinator may have handed your son off to MIT or he/she may be looking and waiting for his best interviewers to finish up and ask for more candidates. Sometimes there is an advantage in being patient in fact. Skype interviewers are usually very experienced interviewers but not always. Your son’s original assigned interviewer is either traveling frequently out of the area, or some other emergency probably came up and no reassignment has happened yet for a variety of possible reasons, including, the RC may be overwhelmed doing interviews too.
@Coloradomama Thank you for your words of wisdom. We always assume the best and try not to let our imaginations go to the dark side, so I agree with your assessment that the EC is probably unable to contact my son for any number of reasons that are beyond their control. It’s just so hard to wait, especially when your friends are all talking about their interviews. He did reach out to his friend’s EC and heard back from her today with the name of our area coordinator. My son then sent the area coordinator an email. At this point, he knows he’s done all that he can and whatever happens, happens. 
@espressomac and @Coloradomama I wanted to follow up since you both were so gracious and helpful with your advice. The area coordinator contacted my son and was very apologetic. There was a glitch and I won’t go into details, but his information didn’t end up getting to the EC. She will be personally interviewing him on Monday. Thank you again for responding to my original inquiry and for all of your helpful advice.
@VAMom2019 Glad it worked out. MIT is working on improving our EC software, so these glitches should be solved soon. Sometimes ECs drop out and forget to tell the Regional Coordinator, or email messages can go to spam etc.
@espressomac Hey could you please contact a Beijing Regional Coordinator on my behalf? I still didn’t have an interview request but there are only 14 days left