Actually, course organizers prioritize students as they always did. Which prerequisites are important to them or how they weight type of study or the semester a student is in, all of this has not changed. They prioritize the students based on criteria they think are important for the course and submit a ranking very much like you submit a ranking for courses. In other words, motivation letters, your private communiation with the course organizers, or your attendence in the initial meeting are being considered as in the past and they will be reflected in the ranking provided by course organizers.