I haven't thought about applying for a whitelist, but I can kind of see why people get upset about something like this case. Just like writing an academic essay, it's very much dependend on who's grading it...
So to give my 2 cents as a forum lurker, here's my suggestion for more transparency (if it's not already done internally): Make/handout something like this:
> You (reviewers) could standardize certain categories like: Believability, Lore correctness, creativity and so on and also add a bonus category like feedback or personal interest or whatever. Then if the person applying got a good enough overall score they're accepted, if not, give them this and maybe a small period to change certain aspects. Alterantively it could be based on a point system. Creativity: 90/100, believability: 30/100.. average of 60, which usually is a pass. That sorta deal.
Again, just a suggestion that would maybe bring more transparency into the whitelisting procedure; stuff like that can be easily automated, shared and archived in excel, just like the crew manifest (which is really awsome)