My S19 did not apply ED because he didn’t have a favorite, but mainly because we needed to be able to compare financial aid offers. His dad and I are divorced and dad is not contributing to college costs but was willing to submit financial information (which affected aid quite a bit). Since I had already been down the financial aid road with D17, I knew that the awards would vary a lot, so we needed to keep options open until the end. I do think S19 would have received a definite admissions boost at the school where he now attends if he had gone ED, but thankfully it worked out in the end and he had some RD acceptances. FYI, Brown’s FA award wasn’t nearly as good as some other offers received.