Finally, got accepted for a place last week. Was the nicest of the many I've seen and am moving in August 1st. It took 4 months but is just what I wanted.
If you are looking I think the best thing is to see things as quickly as you can and take your application straight to the agency. In Lausanne, they open very early in the morning - take the originals of all of your papers and copies for them. They will normally give you a form to complete that they put in a file along with your papers.
I think the danger is that you can become desperate and apply for things you don't really like, but try to hold out because the last thing you want is to have to go through the process again later