The MIT Admissions office just emailed me, encouraging me to schedule an interview for RA. But this is two months after the deadline to sign up for the interview, so I’m in a state of confusion now. I applied to MIT really last minute due to some circumstances, and it was already after the EA interview deadline, so I decided not to. I read another forum where some students were also asked for a really late interview, but they were mostly international students, which I’m not.
Does this mean that MIT is seriously considering me, or is this just a formality? Should I take my chances with the interview?
I would not take it to mean they are seriously considering you. Rather, I would think that they want you to do it because they regard interviews as a good sign of interest. A reported 1% of people who don’t interview get accepted, whereas roughly 10% of those who interview are accepted. That said, they are not selective in who they offer interviews to–they try and get almost everyone to do one–meaning that they likely regard the fact that one chooses to do an interview very highly. I would jump at this opportunity if I were you because your chance of getting in without an interview (or a waived interview) would be infinitesimal.