Questions Regarding Recruiting Timeline and OCR

Hi Fellow Consultants,

I'm preparing for applying to next year's summer intern and have come across with some questions:

- I believe most companies have not started accepted applications yet, so just want to make sure that the typical timeline would be - applying in July/Aug, interviewing in Sep/Oct, is this correct? And are there any firms that may start interviewing early, like some time in July? (I know Oliver Wyman did last year)

- I'm in a target school so can I expect most of the first round interviews on campus? Or would there still be interviews over the phone? Would the location depends on my office preferences?

- Will applying as a candidate who needs H1B sponsor makes it harder to get in a US office than a HK one?

- Will they use some kind of filter to screen out my name if I have applied before (around one year ago) and didn't make it through the screening process then?

Thank you so much in advance for any clarification!