I'm a current IP and from a manning perspective we need more IP's. We've been promoting IP's O4 at an insane clip the last couple of boards. Remember, there are 200 or so IP's in the entire Reserve from O1 - O6.
@Chance_EDO, you were selected, you should consider yourself extremely privileged and fortunate, and frankly, you are an idiot if you do not take this as you will never get another opportunity to commission as the next board will see that you were offered a commission and turned it down.
Keep in mind, you can try to change your designator from IP to EDO after you are fully qualified IP and have your IDWO pin. Recall, I got commissioned as INTEL because it was "easier" (i.e., I was more competitive on paper for INTEL than for IP) than IP back when I was commissioning. I changed my designator to IP. I made O4.
Remember the DCO process has nothing whatsoever to do with your ability to do to job effectively. It's a trumped up shit show that the Navy uses to make it look competitive. If you have 5 slots and 500 applicants, you have to split hairs on competitiveness. And, when you get commissioned, you will be taught what you need to be successful at the job no matter what your DCO competitive package says.
For this go around since they needed more IP's then yes, IP may have been "easier" from a simple numbers perspective. That is, if they needed 10 IP's and 4 EDO's for this board, the competitiveness for EDO's will be more that IP simply because of the number of selections they needed to make.