I have used Collegevine's chancing calculator and I'm not sure where to ED. One of my top schools is NYU and Collegevine says I have a 57% chance. Should I ED to a target school or a reach school? One of my other top choices is Duke, but my chances are only 13%, which is very slim. Some of my other top choices to apply to are: UNC Chapel Hill, Villanova, Boston College, Carnegie Mellon, and Cornell. Thanks everyone!
tbh, u must ED to the college u love the most, u might have less chances in a college according to collegevine but if you are well intended for that particular college then you should go for it. It literally does not matter if ur chances of getting into NYU is more but if you do not consider it your top choice because your essays will automatically reflect your priorities regarding colleges, so my advice cum personal opinion shall be that apply to duke
I would ED to the school that's the hardest for you to get into, but still possible
Are you able to pay full tuition at those schools? If you ED, they will expect you to pay the full expected family contribution, and that is binding.
If you can pay full price for the school, then you have an advantage.
My recommendation is to ED to the school that meets these qualities:
You LOVE it
You’d increase your chances greatly
With that in mind, I might use ED on a hard target. You can look at common data sets for each school to see the percentage difference in acceptances between RD and ED. Sometimes ED acceptances are 10-20% higher than the regular school acceptances. That can show you hard numbers related to what would increase your chances the most.
Good luck!
I would ED to the school that's the hardest for you to get into, but still possible, that way they can see that you want their school above others!
What if the hardest school isn't your first pick? For example, my toughest school is UMichigan. The upsides is it is one of the best colleges overall AND for my intended major on my list, also it has a very good grade for everything on Niche; the downsides are it's one of the most expensive on my list (I won't get financial aid) and I don't like that it is less politically centrist than other colleges I am looking at. So, I might apply ED, but it might not end up being my top pick.
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