I am an R1 applicant and I had a very bad experience with Madison. Hopefully my experience would answer a few of all your questions.
I submitted ALL my application material before the deadline(including recos). Within a week, I was asked to pick 3 best slots for an interview out of the available ones.
I chose the 3 slots(all on the same day) about a fortnight from the day I received the interview invite. I never got a confirmation as to which of the slots was I finally gonna be interviewed on. I waited and waited while sending out emails to the adcoms. Finally after a lot of emails, they said that my interview was postponed to the coming monday at 12 PM CST(around 11.30 PM my time). I wanted to get this interview done ASAP as I was really frustrated with the attitude of the adcoms, so I said YES to that slot.
After a busy day in office(and mind you it was a monday), I came back home, put my suit on and switched my laptop on.
The people who interviewed me seemed to already have a lot of excellent profiles to feast upon. Therefore they were uninterested in me. They had a sarcastic and belittling tone.
My decision was given right on the decision day. I was waitlisted in the end of it all, and I don't feel bad about it. Because all this showed their disinterest in me, and nobody wants to go somewhere like that.