What about after contacting a program and telling them I am ranking them number 1 (which I truly am) and the PD responded with something along the lines of 'you are an excellent applicant to our program ...you would thrive... expect to be ranked above where we filled last year...' How much should I read into that? I take that as an excellent sign and keep in mind that this came AFTER I contacted them saying they were my number 1 choice, not before.