MIT Graduate Student Researcher interview questions

About by interest in machine learning. Also was asked about my programming and software development background, my interest in distributed systems.

They just made me talk to run down the clock, said a bunch of platitudes and that was it. Again, almost felt like sitting there and pretending to listen was a way for them to fulfill some quota, not seriously consider my candidacy. It took me about 3.5 years to get a stable RA (which, in my opinion, is ridiculous). But this was a good time to observe and realize the real reason -> they just hire each other -> the white professors hire white students (and some asians), the asian professors hire asian students (and some white ones), while I was told (I am a minority, not asian) "you just don't fit in here, good luck". A freaking joke.