I thought I responded to this in the past, but I guess not.
First, EC’s are volunteers. That places limitations on what the Institution can do - it can’t, for example, fire the bottom half of ECs and dump the load on the top half. It would also help if the interviewees would keep this in mind. One of the reasons I no longer interview (not the main one - maybe #4 or #5 on the list) is the sense of entitlement by some interviewees. There was the student who demanded that we cancel the agreed upon date and time and switch to another one - one where I was not available. There was the time I got off a plane to Europe to see two emails: one requesting an interview, and one a few hours later berating me for not replying. I think if people were to look at things in that light, their expectations might better match reality.
And, to build on Mike’s point, it’s really annoying when a student asks for an interview and doesn’t want to go to MIT. It’s just deliberately wasting my time. I’m not too annoyed by the rare student who is being pushed into MIT and doesn’t want to go - although I’d be happier if he were to tell me that when scheduling. But I am annoyed by the ones who are “practicing for my interview for [other school]”.
Second, there seems to be this idea that a good interview is one where you “connect” with your EC. I don’t think this is the case. A good interview is one in which the interview report captures aspects about the student that are unlikely to appear in the more quantitative part of the application. I’ve interviewed students who I have liked, and students I haven’t and I’ve had students accepted and rejected from both pools.
My reports are…or rather, were, about 80-90% facts and only 10-20% opinion. Facts are “She said X, she told me Y, she did Z” and so on. One can write a good interview solely on facts, although I felt opinions can improve on that - but I have always made it a point to clearly separate fact from opinion. For example, “He told me that he gets straight A’s without having to study [fact], but I got the feeling [opinion] that he was saying this because he felt the need to impress me, and that he actually does study.” What I don’t do is write a report that is designed to lead the committee down the accept/do not accept path. The job of an EC is to be the eyes and ears of Admissions - but not its brain.
Third, the problem with “grading” is that every student is unique, as is every interview. EC’s are graded on a scale of 1-5. The score I am most proud of was a 3. This was a particularly difficult student with severe anxiety issues - we re-scheduled three times, and eventually conducted the interview by phone. Yes, it was a 3, but in most universes, it wouldn’t exist at all.