Honestly I don't think closed or open had anything to do with it. The majority of people had their checklist closed, but I don't think that means that the people's who list stayed open got selected. If I had to guess.... I would say it had more to do with individual options, it seemed like of the people whoes list were left open.... they/we were were all applying for the same few option. which would speculate that certian members of the board (choosing specific options) actually did there jobs and closed checklist after reviewing packages.... and others didn't.
As far as the 3000 online applicants..... the otherday I ran some statistics and out of those 3000... estimated only 1800 packages were turned in, and only 1100 were board eligible. Still a large number though.