@ohmydaysman For internationals to determine match and safety schools, they need to look at international acceptance rates, not U.S. acceptance rates. International acceptance rates are considerably, and are not necessarily proportionate to U.S. rates from school to school.
The Catch 22 is that it’s very difficult to find transparent and accurate international acceptance rates, though sometimes you can extrapolate by reading admissions announcements. Wesleyan (which I would recommend) is notably helpful. For the class of 2021 they received 2260 application and admitted 269, 12%.
http://www.wesleyan.edu/admission/informationfor/international.html
Barring that you should look at the colleges’ Common Data Set and see the percentage of internationals enrolled. Berea, for example, only enrolled 29 internationals last year (about 7% of the class) which is on the low side for liberal arts colleges. Now we don’t know how many applied (Berea says “hundreds” ) or how many admitted students actually enrolled, but the fact that they only enrolled 29 students from the whole world indicates that Berea wouldn’t be a safety.
I would agree that applying ED would be a good strategy (especially if you’re not applying for aid). I’m not sure about EA. The key point is that you have to devote of energy to your essays and other application materials. U.S. colleges, even the most selective, like the thought and experience diversity that internationals provide. You need to articulate how your background would contribute to the campus community.
I haven’t studied international acceptance rates at mid-size and large universities. If you are interested in LACs, then I you might look at some of these schools which have a relatively higher percentage of enrolled internationals.
Enrolled / total first year class
Swarthmore: 55 / 392
Carleton: 58 / 522
Barnard: 61 / 603
Colby: 61 / 508
Middlebury: 72 / 635
Macalester: 76 / 506
Richmond: 81 / 801
Skidmore: 81 / 661
Wellesley: 81 / 603
Colgate: 82 / 771
Oberlin: 85 / 728
Bryn Mawr: 90 / 354
Smith: 95 / 639
Grinnell: 97 / 414
Dickinson: 99 / 607
Clark: 107/ 671
Wesleyan: 108 / 761
Holyoke 151 / 529