Interviews before or after acceptance?

[genotype]

I am curious to hear your thoughts/experiences regarding how often schools will interview applicants after they have basically already made admissions decisions? The first time around, when I was in graduate school, I was accepted right after the interview (as in, before I was even on my way home). Due to the expense of flying candidates in for interviews, do you think that it is mostly used as a check to make sure that admits are not psycho/that they find it to be a good fit? Or, does it really just depend on the program?

[shorty06]

That's basically what my PI said (who's been in the department for like 20 years). She said the very top programs (like... top 3-5) probably actually use it as part of the admissions process, but the vast majority are using it to show off their department. They (adcom) actually call it recruitment weekend. I'm sure it varies by field, but based on your name I'm guessing we're in the same field. She said she can only remember one person who interviewed at my school (U Washington) and didn't get in... 4.0 student from MIT w/ excellent research experience but couldn't make eye contact to save his life and completely and utterly lacked social skills.

[Genomic Repairman]

Some schools do acceptance pending interview, some accept before interviewing, while my institution does an informal acceptance but brings you out to interview. If you are a reject they will send you the evil form letter. This happened before to a candidate last year.

[MemphisMomma]

I came out for my interview before receiving a formal letter of acceptance, but when I got there I learned that almost everyone there on the interview had already gotten an acceptance letter.

[NeedChange]

I'm envying you American guys For us international candidates they mostly conduct phone interviews and I think they would interview many candidates before making decisions. Wish I could be invited to an on-campus interview sometime from certain schools, although I can't make the trip.