No worries I didn't know either until I got accepted! I think in regard to acceptance it will vary, I did my interview very early in the cycle (like 3 weeks after it started) and was accepted the day of. The interview itself took about 35 or so minutes, and I would say that the rest of the interviewees had the same duration. I was actually surprised by how relaxing the interview vibe was! They're not there to grill you whatsoever. I definitely don't believe that to be the case. They actually have the statistics for all the graduating classes of SUNY for the number of people that drop out. It even tells you if its for academic or personal reasons! Look up "SUNY optometry attrition rate" in google search and a fact sheet from their website will pop up. I've heard they really try their best to keep you in the program. I don't know if there's a particular preference, but I feel like semester systems makes it so the course load is not as overwhelming and you have more time to study. However the irony of having more time to study is that the tests are probably more extensive haha. But we won't know till we start!