I agree with kinnem. This is a marathon, not a sprint. They do not call it MASS MAILING MARCH for nothing.
Yes, some will hear early, but typically it is the minority and it will be a drip, drip, drip with the 1st big drip being Jan. You need to understand how charging appointments work. If your MOC uses an unranked slate than before USAFA can charge a candidate all of candidates must be boarded. A candidate can get their nomination in Oct., but for whatever reason does not do their CFA until Dec., and not boarded until Jan., than USAFA cannot charge the appointee to that MOC until they are boarded.
I would strongly suggest that while you wait get your ROTC scholarship done. AFROTC and USAFA do not talk... there have been many candidates that got an appointment, but rejected for the scholarship and vise a verse. AFROTC does not superscore, USAFA does. AFROTC will not include your sr. yr, USAFA does. AFROTC is national, they could not care less if 100% of the recipients are from 1 state. USAFA is geocentric, and they do make sure that every state is represented. USAFA uses the CFA, AFROTC uses the PFA. The only thing that they will use is the DoDMERB, HOWEVER if you get DQd by USAFA,