<p>How would applying ED AND EA even make sense? Wouldn’t it suck to get into a school ED, and have to withdraw from HYPSMC (some of which don’t even offer EA anymore), without even having a chance to get in? Applying somewhere ED is so risky - unless you really don’t care about finances and you REALLY know exactly where you want to go, it’s a bad play because there’s always that lingering <em>what if</em>. Also, the numbers above, for example about Caltech - bear in mind that Caltech is extremely number-oriented in admissions.</p>