<p>A lot of people argue that ED may boost your chances, perhaps significantly, of getting admitted to selective colleges. The colleges themselves say that it doesn’t - they say that the higher admissions rates are explained by the very competitive bunch that apply ED to these schools. CC denizens argue (convincingly) that can’t explain the entire very large differences between the application rate - some schools with single-digit acceptance RD rates boast ED rates of 20% or more, and there’s clearly an advantage yield-wise for schools to accept more students ED.</p>
<p>That said, I think it IS safe to say that ED only works as a boost for candidates who are already competitive for admission wrt grades, test scores, and ECs, and/or who may be kind of borderline at the non-single-digit schools. So if you’re not a competitive RD admit, I wouldn’t bother wasting an ED on Northwestern.</p>
<p>I’m going to go on a limb and say that ED as a boost may also work better at the ladder-climber schools who are trying to compete with the very top/elite schools for students - Tufts comes to mind, for example, with the “Tufts Syndrome” thing (although whether that’s a real thing or not is debatable). Dave Berry says he’s seen it happen at Wash U (here: <a href=“http://www.collegeview.com/admit/?p=3083”>http://www.collegeview.com/admit/?p=3083</a>). However, both Northwestern and Wash U have yield rates similar to each other (35-40%), although Northwestern doesn’t strike me as a university hurting for students or recognition.</p>
<p>Personally, I don’t really see much of a point on the student’s end of applying ED in a case like this one, where there’s no real clear first choice and perhaps not much of a benefit to applying ED to the student (depends on your stats, I guess). Especially not when there are soooooo many great colleges out there to apply to in addition to these two, if you really want to hedge your bets.</p>
<p>To answer the question, I honestly don’t think it will matter. An econ major with the quantitative skills can get hired into the same jobs as a business major, especially with the recruiting at Northwestern. The same firms are likely to be hitting both schools’ career services offices. I’ve heard finance people say that econ is more flexible than a general business major. Consider also the idea that you might change your mind about what you want to major in, and where you would be more happy as a student overall (so social scene and environment, too).</p>