@lookingforward The reason colleges can be harsher on the ED pool than the RD one is that they don’t know what the overall pool will look like and so err on the side of caution. This is especially the case where special circumstances are involved or where the student’s competitiveness would have benefitted from seventh semester grades. When I worked in admissions, students on the cusp were often admitted in the RD round when they would have been rejected during ED.