1997 when I got selected it was masked... But...not for school selection. The push was to not punish operators but they still couldn't resist peeking anyway wrt school selection.
I was 95% getting out anyway. But I did think it was dirty pool for the guys who wanted to stay who took the "masters not required" baiit and just tried to be good F-15 IPs, flight commanders etc instead of taking ERAU classes at night after a 10-14 hour day at work.
With a nice boost from the ANG, made O-5 before any of those guys as well, again with no masters but with all PME done. While personally kind of smugly satisfying, it was disheartening to realize the active was pressuring guys at the busiest points in their lives to throw college on top of the mix, while a part time guy was only evaluated on his flying ability and job performance in his primary job. I had the time to get a masters then, but didn't need it. Stressing the hardest working guys in the CAF by sending mixed messages on higher education struck me as stupid at best and critically negligent when guys safety or job performance was compromised.