I'm in Los Angeles, California. And yes, I placed it through the Apple online education store. It's a 27 incher top spec
I would be hopeful that it should ship this week. though for whatever reason, they appeared to have slowed down and there has been little in the way of orders changing status these last few days.
However i have a theory on that.
I think that its the last week they could build and ship those orders that were placed in December before the delivery dates changed from "January" to a date.
there are still a lot of people waiting with promised delivery dates of just "january" so Apple will be attempting to get those orders out in time. last week that wasn't an issue, this week it is, they are running out of time.
I think thats why theres been no progression of later orders
and no I do not believe for one moment that Apple are shipping on a FCFS basis.
only why bother sending out a order mid Jan when you can send it out late Jan and not exceed the original "jan" delivery date.
If that made sense at all!