<p>Hi all,</p>
<p>Here's why I ask. I applied last year and failed miserably. I say that because I applied again this year and like to think I learned a lot from the first time and realized how many mistakes I made. I feel I did much better this time, but hey, who knows.</p>
<p>What I find interesting though, is that last year they granted me an interview (phone, international) in the last week just before the decision, when decisions were probably all made already. I guess it was just a courtesy thing. I had applied quite late, so I thought maybe they just serve interviews in the order people apply. But this time I applied at exactly the same time but received the interview 2 months earlier, quite a difference, so that rules out the latter.</p>
<p>So my (yes slightly pathetic) reasoning is, if the order isn't chronological, and it isn't alphabetical either, (since my surname starts with A and I'm usual annoyingly first at everything when it comes to that :P), I don't think it's random, as if it were random, it would just be chronological, why bother make it any more random? </p>
<p>I think that interviews primary serve as another means for them to sell the university to applicants, through the point of view of someone who has actually attended there, so it would make sense to try to interview the more likely candidates first and less likely later. That would explain why I received an interview incredibly late last time when I consider my application now to have been really average then. And yes, it could also, and probably means nothing :)</p>
<p>This post is utterly pointless, and coming from someone who is expecting a decision in a few days that could change his life in major ways, and probably will, whatever the outcome, so it's more self-therapy than anything else, but if you want to indulge with your own opinion, be my guest.</p>