I’m a high school senior trying to decide if/where to ED. I want to study physics and want a smaller intellectual environment and my top schools are HMC, Swarthmore, Rice, and Brown. I have a 4.7(3.9) GPA and a 1570 SAT. I really can’t decide which school to ED and feel like making that commitment is super difficult. It seems to me that my chance aren’t that much different RD from ED and so I have been considering just not EDing anywhere. Please let me know if you feel like this conclusion is false, there certainly are many conflicting opinions about Brown ED rates. On the other hand that feels very risky and nerve-racking as my friends get in to school ED and I have no idea if/where I get in for months. Another advantage to not EDing is to (in my view somewhat naively) throw my hat in the for HYPSM though I likely won’t get in. Also my grades will be slightly better after this semester (3.89 to 3.91 or whatever unweighted - though my school published the 4.7 weighted which will also improve). Separately, I’m not trying to come off as elitist, there are plenty of less selective schools I am applying to that I will be very happy to go to, getting into an Ivy isn’t really a big deal to me but I would really like to get into one of the 4 schools I listed above. Would appreciate any advice. Thanks!
Have you visited any of them? I don’t think I’d ED a school where I hadn’t set foot on campus. It is a binding decision. All 4 are solid, but will have unique intangibles that set them apart.
Appreciate the advice. Visited all but Brown. Loved the campuses of Swatt and Rice and thought Mudd was fine.
Brown is very different than the others as a campus. It’s amorphous, with no clear edge or unity to the campus. The town is nice, but none of us liked the campus at all.
Let’s not mince words about HMC. It’s ugly. That said, the students love it. One of my son’s roommates is a Mudd alum and he raves about the experience.
Rice is beautiful and the house system is very cool. It is in Houston though. Having done graduate work there, I can say unequivocally that the heat and humidity are brutal. It’s also in TX. It might be worth looking the other way for Rice. I loved hanging out there (when I wasn’t sweating my ‘n*ds off 
).
I’ve always had a soft spot for Swarthmore. We never visited because their engineering just doesn’t stack up to the bigger deeper programs. That said, for Physics, I’m sure it would be great.
With a 3.9 all will be a reach. GPA is the number one factor for all schools, typically followed by rigor, test scores (maybe in reverse order) and then ECs, letters, etc.
There’s something to be said about going with your gut. If one isn’t a clear favorite, don’t ED any of them. It’s a binding decision after all. If one speaks to you though, choose it. Your chances will be better because your addition to the yield is all but guaranteed.
Again, all are long shots. You said you have other options and that’s good. Your heart will tell you what’s right.
At the end of the day, it really doesn’t matter. Don’t overthink it. Your success will be FAR more about what you do with your time than it will be about the name in the paper.
Good luck!
Are you fine with being full pay, and can you handle being full pay without taking on any debt?
If the answer is no, then have you run the NPCs on these schools and are you and your parents okay with the results?
Do you know which school you would prefer to attend?
Deciding to apply ED is a big deal and the choice should not be made lightly. If you need financial aid, you should not apply ED because you lose the opportunity to compare packages. The bigger issue is if you don’t have a clear favorite, you shouldn’t apply ED. What if you change your mind or have significant doubts after you hit submit? Granted, that can happen anyway but if you have a handful of favorites, you shouldn’t pressure yourself to pick one just to try and (maybe) improve your odds or not feel left out because your friends all applied ED. Those are the wrong reasons.
You also really need to understand that the vast majority of students who are accepted in the ED round have some kind of hook. Many are recruited athletes, legacy students, related to VIPs or big donors, or have something major that they bring to the table. The acceptance rate in the ED round is artificially inflated because those students were going to get in anyway. Unhooked ED applicants are often deferred to the RD round anyway.
You have done a good job identifying the variables swirling around you! Three that you can separate out from your decision process are:
Good news: that is really really not going to matter, so not a reason to go/not go ED
[quote=“hami1317, post:1, topic:3586000”]
very risky and nerve-racking as my friends get in to school ED and I have no idea if/where I get in for months.[/quote]
First, look at your other schools and find at least one that has EA. That will give you the confidence of having one in your back pocket. No risk 
Second, start working right now on dampening all talk of your college hopes/dreams/expectations with anybody except your very nearest and dearest (which means 1-2 friends MAX). Don’t indicate a favorite or ‘dream’ school. Say as little as you can, ask your friends as little as you can, be as vague as you possibly can. Don’t feed the fire. It leaves you-and your friends!- so much more room to walk your own path. Work hard on getting it in your head that starting May 1 next year, all of this intensity that you are living in will collapse in a heap- so fast that by graduation it will only be a remnant, and by this time next year it will be hard to remember how obsessed everybody was.I can’t overstate how much happier/less stressful this will make the next 6 months.
That is an advantage ONLY if you actually really want to go to one of those schools. You are correct that you have a 90+% of being rejected by any/all of those schools - as indeed you do from all but 1 of the schools that you are thinking of ED’ing to (HM is ‘only’ an 85% chance of rejection). So, first and biggest question: aside from the bragging rights, are you genuinely interested in any of those schools? If so, which one (or top 2)? What are the biggest reasons for wanting to go there?
When you have those answers, compare that school to Swarthmore. Again, set aside the glory of the sweatshirt and think about the lived experience. How do they stack up?
Why Swat for this exercise? b/c it’s the one where ED is most likely to make a meaningful difference for you. At Rice and Brown ED (theoretically) doubles your chances (to a still small ~15%); the impact at HMC is much smaller (from ~14% to ~19% iirc). But: ED encompasses legacy / athletes / other priority admits, so your actual chances have not doubled. On the other hand, at Swat ED is likely to make a meaningful difference in your actual chances: ~23% ED acceptance rate (vs just under 8% RD) last year.
My son did not like Brown’s campus. It isn’t as well defined as others. Also, you should think about what you want in terms of core requirements. Brown has an open curriculum and HMC has almost your first two years completely mapped out.
Find a couple EA non-restrictive schools that are a good fit and that give acceptances before the holidays, if possible. That takes the edge off. I do not think you need to ED anywhere based on your comments. You can take your time in the spring weighing your options with fit, opportunities, and financial aid packages.
In researching these schools further, you may want to consider awards from the American Physical Society, such as the Apker (for undergraduate research in physics): LeRoy Apker Award - Wikipedia.
For your greater list, look into Williams (lots of Apker recipients), Pomona (especially notable for recent recipients), Wesleyan (two relatively recent recipients, and generally similar to Brown), Hamilton (notable for a recent Apker finalist and a recent APS prize to a professor for significant contributions to the field and mentorship, Gordon Jones Receives APS Research Prize - News - Hamilton College), Haverford and Reed.
Take a look at the academic requirements at each.
For example, Harvey Mudd has a voluminous and rigorous set of core or general education requirements. Brown is the opposite in this respect. Do you have a preference between these approaches?
Obviously, also check what upper level physics courses are offered how frequently.
In general, ED is only appropriate if the school is a top choice that you have no regrets committing to now and have no difficulty affording.
Not sure of the reasoning here. You can do both. What am I missing?
Re the Apker awards, HMC has had 4 awardees and 4 finalists.
Fwiw, my kid has similar stats and is looking at a physics major. He has a lot of overlap with your school list. He isn’t applying ED anywhere.
The ED acceptance rates are inflated, and he doesn’t have a clear front runner. Many on his list he has never seen. He is applying to 4 EA, including two safety-ish schools.
He is open to ED2, depending upon how things shake out.
This appears to be an oversight. Note that if the OP were to be accepted to one of these schools as an ED applicant, he would be committed to (or, from the OP’s tentative perspective, limited to) that school.
Thanks! super helpful. As to the first paint I think you’re right especially since my school only published the weighted GPA which is very much in my favor. Second, I am applying to a number of EA schools (CWRU, Reed, CU Boulder, AU) that I am really excited about and think I have a great shot at so I think that’s a great idea. Third, aside from the prestige, it’s really just Princeton of those schools that I really would like to go to. Love the school and its certainly my top choice but feels (obviously) way out there. Main difference between that and Swarthmore is how much I like the physics department at Princeton, but tbh if I decide Swarthmore if my top choice, I think I would rather the ED boost from them than waiting for, well Princeton.
definitely prefer the Brown curriculum. My feeling is that I have taken all of the math and most of the sciences in the HMC curriculum that I would atleast attempt to pass those exams before enrolling. Certainly a negative though. Also in terms of curriculum requirements its more language arts etc that I’m trying to avoid haha.
I assume he is thinking of ED2ing if he doesn’t get into his reach EA/SCEA? Do you mind if I ask what other schools he is planning on applying too? Appreciate it!
So, the worst case scenario is the OP actually gets accepted ED to his nominal first-choice college (i.e., Swarthmore, Rice, Harvey Mudd or Brown?) Is that what I’m missing?
I will PM you. He wouldn’t want me sharing too much publicly.