I did ed, and about the only thing I gained from it was not having to finish my other college essays. But I’d say it depends on school, your financial situation, and how far behind your second choice is. And be wary of red acceptance rates. Ed acceptance rate for my school was roughly double the regular acceptance rate, but once you factored out the recruited athletes it was much closer to the regular rate, meaning the “boost” my application received from ed was pretty close to zero.