yeah, it's a long process. But being first = the best chances of acceptance,
by far. There are 6 months of interviews, but so what? most ppl who interview during those later months get rejected. I would know; I'm a reapplicant. Last year I applied in September and had late interviews. So maybe you can see now why I went through the extra effort to be in the first set of interviews time, why getting this secondary first matters more to me than it does to you, and why what has happened feels particularly unfair. Next time you see someone venting on SDN, try and realize you don't know everything about them.