@murray93 Have you looked at American U in DC? 90% ED rate and test optional! It is neither Greek oriented or conservative (It’s #9 most liberal in US). It’s a medium sized school 10,000 UG. The campus is compact and situated around a beautiful quad. The University provides an unlimited metro pass to explore the city (and all of the free monuments & museums). They have several different music related degrees. My DS attends and loves it there. DD applied early to Southwestern and it was the first school to send back an acceptance. I think it’s really closer to a rolling acceptance school. Another school we looked at was Christopher Newport U (5,000 ug with music programs) in VA. Another test optional school that was really beautiful and the students were so friendly. We thought DD might have to go TO, but she raised her ACT score by 6 points. She took one section every day for about 6 weeks leading up to her test and that really helped her. If you look at school that do not have a huge representation from your state it may also give you a boost. Many schools really want to increase their geographic diversity.
I also had a friend recommend I look at American. I’ll have to revisit it. She said it’s very easy to get to from Dulles.
@murray93 Please pm me with any questions about American, I’m happy to help. We use DCA (Regan International Airport) as it’s the better hub for our region and we like Southwest’s no baggage fees. There are so many direct flights from so many areas that it is easy to get in and out of whether you choose Dulles or Regan. DS wanted DC so we toured GW and American. His best friend goes to GW. For DD we toured Trinity U (accepted and will attend in the Fall), Southwestern, Christopher Newport, Elon U, Highpoint U, Rollins, and Furman U. I have literally been researching colleges and admissions strategies for almost 4 years straight, and now with both kids out of the process I have all of this free time!
In general, regardless of whether one applies ED anywhere, it is better to apply early to any EA, rolling, early-deadline-for-scholarship, etc. school where applying early non-binding is advantageous.
Of course, if any of your colleges has restrictive EA (where you agree not to apply to other colleges ED or EA, depending on the college’s EA restrictions), that can require you to choose which subset of possible early applications you will apply early to.
Make sure you can afford the ED school. if you need to compare offers, ED is not for you.
Check out the Colleges that Change Lives schools.