guys do not waste your energy thinking about who what when and why students are accepted the reality is there are a lot of criteria and no one really knows unless you are sitting in the board of admissions...
This is my understanding though...Nova chooses students who they feel they will be able to teach for the next 3 yrs....hence the one on one interview, that is just a formality to see your communication skills and level of thinking, this is a professional course and that is very important....next someone with decent hand skills, hence the bench test...they do not care if you are amazing with the drill but just someone who does not butcher the tooth ...it is a 3 yr course and you will though alot in lab so your skills will keep improving ofcourse if you do not have any skills to begin with chances are you will get frustrated and leave the course, which means loss of a student for nova...
all you'll guys have done your part now let Nova do theirs..all i can say is last yr the 31 students who were accepted into the IDG program were called in a span of 2 months and different times, why they wait so long ...who knows?????
and toothangel do not be fooled, influence works wherever you are, but i can say majority get in with no influence so do not worry..
All the best guys