There is also a waiting list. If people who were accepted don't respond by the 14th of December their spots become available to people on the waiting list.
Hope this helps
My email said "early December" ... I'm hoping that's the first week
I read a forum on cycle 7 and it seems like people from different regions received their acceptance letters at different times
Hi everyone! I'm from region 2 and I applied for cycle 8. Erack I'm so glad you created this forum. It's great to know I'm not the only one dreading the waiting process.