I was told by someone who has been trying to attend for years that it's hard to get accepted. Not sure if that's accurate or not but I was accepted and am excited to learn and listen.

AFAIK, generally the people I see getting in are technical and have somewhat interesting projects that they've worked on.

I've been accepted twice and I'm nothing special, but that was many years ago and YC has blown up since then.

My co-founder got denied and I got an invite. So no, not everyone who applies gets an invite.

Had a similar circumstance, re: my co-creator getting rejected and myself getting accepted.

I have mixed feelings about my acceptance, because I think she might benefit from it more than I.

same here. I am not a social guy.

I'm also deciding if it's worth the cost to make the 2000+ mile trip.

yeah, my cost with flight, hotel etc will approach 2k dollars. Throw in lost billable time with clients and this is a 5K investment for a one day conf I could watch online. The key is going to be what I make of the hours that I spend not sitting in a seat during that day. Meeting people, making connections etc.