<p>And with regard to my point about differentiating at the next level, I don’t want to hear any stupid arguments about extra-curricular activities and community service, and all that other stuff. We all know that the vast majority of schools/applicants (not only in South Asia, but across the world) are VERY poor in this respect. Unless you’ve cured cancer AND AIDS in your free time, MIT does not give two s**ts about your cute drama club or your squash playing (if you’re in sports, you’re going to get trounced by pretty much any American varsity athlete–that’s how low the standard for sports is in India, not that I disagree with it). For most of you South Asian MIT applicants out there, you’re not going to have anything non-academic on that resume which will make all the MIT adcoms intentionally go, “Oh my god! I’ve never seen anything like this kid before. S/He is so amazing that we just HAVE to take him/her.” All you can do is hope and pray that you somehow get sorted into that <1% of applications that will get you in–and at that point, it isn’t worth worrying about something so trivial and inconsequential as the interview. And always remember, it isn’t your fault you didn’t get in. You are part of a group being discriminated against, as part of a completely opaque process that runs free from government intervention and legal proceedings–not just for you, but for your fellow countrymen in America as well. So, don’t worry. And it’s not as though most of the interviewers are interesting people either. In fact, most are rather dull–the people who had NOTHING better to do than waste hours of their lives talking to a couple of completely dissimilar people they’ll never meet with again, pretty much.</p>