Decide where to apply ED?

College Search & Selection
1

So I’ve been going through this over and over in my head and I’m running out of time to make a decision: Penn or Cornell? (my stats are 33 ACT, 1480 SAT, 5.238 GPA, plenty of extracurriculars, definitely enough APs and overload courses, over 130 volunteer hours, go to an elite STEM boarding school, probably won’t disclose subject test scores as they were quite unimpressive)

Penn Pros: great location, great academics, great medical school, great dorms, a familiar culture
Penn Cons: low acceptance rate

Cornell Pros: great academics, familiar culture, great medical school (located in NYC…yay)
Cornell Cons: not in a city

I think my absolute first choice would be Penn. Now, I know my stats are pretty average at both schools, but I feel like Penn is a bigger stretch. Applying ED to Penn would give me my greatest shot of getting in, but would it be smarter to use my ED on Cornell simply because I have a greater chance of getting in? Would I be throwing away my ED if I apply to Penn? Do I even have a shot?

2

For Penn, if you are an unhooked applicant (not a URM, legacy, athlete, etc ) the early acceptance boost is negligible.

Of the two, only Cornell will give you a meaningful boost.

If you are premed, you might also consider not attending “cutthroat” colleges as getting a high GPA (and MCAT score) is paramount to getting into a U.S. medical school.

Things to consider, you don’t necessarily need to go to an Ivy. Sorry, that might not be what you want to here.