For posterity, here's a piece of an email I received from the department, seems to me it says that there are interviews on a selected shortlist of 20 :
(first part is about whether it's necessary to be emailing or contacting someone before applying)
"....Nor does that silence impact your chances in the admissions process. We have had students who are admitted whose only contact with the department was at the interview stage when a short list of 20 or so applicants are interviewed before the final selection."
If you would like it.
.....Though I wasn't interviewed, I don't know when it happened - if that is what he's saying, it sounds to me as though it is.
