<p>Would you marry someone you've never met? Or spoken to? That's what applying ED without visiting is like. You're committing yourself to 4 years together. </p>
<p>Would you spend $20,000 for a car you couldn't test drive? Why commit to spending $140-160,000 for a college you've never seen?</p>
<p>There are many, many stories of kids who visited schools that looked perfect on paper, and they hated it. Some didn't even apply to what had previously been their first choice. It's not necessary to visit non-binding schools before applying, but the same caveat goes for visiting schools after acceptance and before committing. My d will be attending a school she didn't visit until April (after acceptance), but then fell in love with. And the schools that looked perfect? Didn't like them.</p>
<p>By the way, this is not specific to Columbia. It applies to any school you are seriously considering. Each has its own personality and feel.</p>
<p>Well put, Chevda. I totally agree with everything you said. Every school has it's own feel that is not exactly apparent on their website. </p>
<p>If you are fortunate enough to visit schools early on, then you can eliminate schools that don't give you the warm fuzzies. My s had a long list of schools initially, but only applied to the few that he still liked after visiting. Granted, this is not possible for everyone, but don't go the ED route with a school without checking it out up close and personal.</p>
<p>D is not applying ED nor SCEA for any school because we did not get to visit any school this summer due to work commitment. I also heard that for some school they reject applicant who applies SCEA instead of defer this applicant to RD, so SCEA does not help unless you're very strong candidate.</p>
<p>ED and EA/SCEA are two different animals, as you have not made a commitment with the latter. I cannot comment on the reject vs. defer with SCEA as I'm sure there are NO sources of data, just individual personal experiences.</p>
<p>I agree with other posters and would never recommend applying ED to a school sight unseen.</p>