<p>It doesn’t actually mean much. As an interviewer, we are asked to assign scores to a variety of characteristics on a 1-5 basis. The content of the interview report is much more important than the number. 4 is a very solid score, but I am surprised at an interviewer suggesting that it means all that much.</p>
<p>Interviews are very important at the extremes, a really brilliant interview or a really awful one can seriously affect your chances. Most of the middle ones matter much less. </p>
<p>For example, on every interview report that I file there is a box that I can tick if I have interviewed that “one in a million” candidate that MIT simply cannot let go. I have never yet ticked that box. I know of a couple of EC’s who have had the opportunity to tick the box. Of all of the cases I know of, every candidate who has had that box ticked, got in (I acknowledge a statistically insignificant sample size).</p>