<p>I know it's somewhat late to talk about this, but I was just curious. My dad urged me to apply ED to an elite school because it would increase my chances of acceptances. My counselor, on other hand, strongly advised me against it because she said that applying ED does not increase your chances of acceptance. She also knew that I was not totally in love with the school(s) my dad wanted me to look at to apply ED for. So I am sort of split. I didn't apply ED to any schools, but I applied EA to 5 schools. I know applying EA doesn't increase chances of acceptance. Should I have applied ED to one of my reach schools? I applied RD to Northwestern and Vanderbilt.</p>
<p>Your dad is right. The acceptance rate for ED candidates at many elite schools is significantly higher than the acceptance rate for the general candidate pool. Some will argue that the two pools cannot be simply compared, and that the ED pool includes more athletes, legacy, etc. All that said, colleges like to be your number one choice, and the best way to let them know that is by applying ED.</p>
<p>It depends on the school. Some fill a higher percentage of their incoming freshman class with early applicants than others do. Just anecdotally I think there is likely some benefit to ED applications, although the raw figures you read are probably somewhat misleading because of the athlete/legacy factor.</p>
<p>If you are not 100% about the school to which your dad wanted you to apply ED, then you did the right thing by not applying. I don’t think your counselor is necessarily 100% right though.</p>