ED is great when it works. I know it gave my kid a stress free senior year after he got hisbEDvacceot. That itbwas his true top choucevwas a plus too. But had he not been accepted to that school, jebliked his EA and rolling choices well enough that he was “game over” in the process.
I really like the strategy of applying early to a number of schools. If you don’t have a clear favorite and you really do not want to commit to a school yet and ED just doesn’t make you comfortable, you want to compare Aid offers, you want or need merit money, ED is not for you. So check out some EA and rolling admissions. It’ll cover some safeties if you pick wisely, and give you an idea where you stand in college admissions.
Schools are increasingly changing from EA to SCEA. A lot of the selective ones that are not way up at the top (I’m looking at you, Michigan!) are getting a bit tired of being in back up position early, and are either becoming ultra selective EA or going ED(BC) or SCEA(Georgetown).
Back in the day, my oldest was able to apply EA to G-town, BC, Binghamton, st Bonaventure all early and get a good reading in where he stood in college admissions. Full ride accept, Low sticker price accept, Full cost accept, Deferred.
He had a price that was difficult to beat, a selectivity threshold he could choose to push, and yes his final results lined up well along those lines