<p>Apply to both early. MIT’s early action decisions are generally sent out earlier than the Ivy League responses. Therefore, if you apply MIT EA and are accepted, you can withdraw your Cornell application immediately. However, if you are deferred from MIT and accepted at Cornell, then you might have misgivings about your binding application to Cornell and will have to withdraw your pending app to MIT.</p>
<p>It really depends on what type of an applicant you are.</p>
<p>I was DEADSET on applying to Cornell ED (I saw it as an excellent school and didn’t think I would have a chance at better places). But, I changed my mind last minute, did Yale early action, deferred, and in the end of the whole process I got into
8 ivies-Harvard-Yale+Stanford+MIT + ALL of my lesser, “safety” schools in the regular round.</p>
<p>I am so glad that I did not bind early to a school.</p>
<p>Another thing to keep in mind about ED as well: While it is true that you can decline an ED admission if the offered FA package does NOT make it feasible for you to attend, you are NOT allowed to wait on other schools FA packages to compare. In other words, you would have to decide whether the Cornell ED FA package is good enough before you get a chance to see the MIT FA package. So if you aren’t happy with the Cornell ED aid and you’re successful in getting Cornell to release you from the binding ED contract, you won’t be able to come back later to Cornell and say, “I’ve changed my mind since your FA package turned out to better than MIT’s after all.”</p>
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<p>No, you have to withdraw all pending applications. You can’t just “wait and see” where you get accepted.</p>
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<p>I’ve heard this argument applied for EA, but not ED. The benefit of ED is that schools know a student will matriculate, thus eliminating the need to play the yield game. The Vassar info session admitted this, and furthered that they’re not as weary of reading identical applications earlier in the season.</p>
<p>I think the OP is somewhat missing the purpose of ED.
It’s so that if you have a clear first choice, you can apply early and potentially get admitted and thus avoid having to apply to multiple schools.</p>
<p>It’s not designed as a means of enhancing your chances at a school that you are on the “edge” with in term of admission.</p>
<p>You really need to through the mental exercise of pretending you are admitted all of the schools you are considering. If there is one school that you would clearly prefer to attend given that scenario, then and only then, should you apply to that school ED.</p>