[gavinflud]

This is an excellent post. I'm soon-to-be fresh out of university and the company I'm joining had a hiring process very similar to what you've described.

They were in constant contact throughout the process, sold themselves very well and - although they did carry out a cookie-cutter technical interview - it actually made for an interesting hour where I was able to solve their pretty simple sample problem and we ended up going off on a tangent talking about how to optimize the interview process.

What differentiated them from countless others was that personal touch. I always felt like they wanted me on board and they were able to sell themselves and their culture very well.