@sushi - thanks for your insights and the fact MIT did not ask for confirmation. That does quash my theory regarding an ordered list. At the same time, my point about size of program was comparing MIT to MIT, in other words MIT bio and not other school's neuro programs. MIT Bio has three distinct and separate interview dates AND send all (like 99%) of invites on a single day. This is strikingly different from BCS with their scattered invites and single interview date. Remember, Harvard is Harvard. Their undergrad accepted student weekend was the longest of any I remember hearing about as well. I would not try and compare anything to them. At the same time, Harvard has two routes you could do Neuro - Neuro and BBS. It appears neuro has a single date while BBS has two and it is a fact that the size of the two programs is very different.