<p>Idler</p>
<p>Demonstrated interest is not a factor at the Ivies, Stanford and MIT. However at schools that have historically been "fallback" schools (not safeties) for many students, like Emory or WUSTL,Tufts, Bates, Colby, Middlebury, Bowdoin among others, demonstrated interest sadly has become a big factor in admissions.</p>
<p>Schools like Emory and WUSTL are all about yield and don't want to "waste" an admission spot on someone that doesn't place them as a first or second choice in their estimation. Look at the admissions statistics for WUSTL where ED admission statistics (GPA, SATs, class rank) are considerably below those in RD. They would rather lower the bar (still quite high nonetheless) and guarantee their yield in ED than take chances in RD with the highest achievers when their own statistics demonstrate that they are a longer shot to enroll.</p>