<p>Reed is absolutely my first choice. I just minutes ago was accepted, so this thread is fitting 
</p>
<p>There’s really nothing quite like it. No compromise here. All love.</p>
<p>The answer re: the OP question is: both. My daughter loved three or four schools and applied ED to one (University of Pennsylvania) and was accepted.</p>
<p>My S also got excepted ED to his only choice, Colorado College. He did not want another school after visiting 5 universities, 2 in Canada and the other three in Western US. He knew after his CC campus visit, and as we were on our way to the last US campus, just an hour and half away, he told me he was going to apply ED at CC. He knew he fit and that was it. His package was received on Monday!(Fedex Canada) He is extremely happy. That is all that matters. He did his homework, on 10 schools, and short listed 5. I do not envy those families that have children applying to 6-15 schools. Senior year is important and it is difficult enough, without the stress of applying and waiting.</p>
<p>My ED school (Harvey Mudd, match) was definitely my first-choice…I loved everything about it. Academics, first and foremost, plus campus life, student body, location/weather, faculty, etc. My other potential ED school was Columbia, but I don’t regret my ED with Harvey Mudd. I did a lot of prior research on it and knew that it would suit me very well. I got my acceptance letter today, and I’m really excited and feeling even more motivated for the rest of senior year :)</p>
<p>I would have been happy at either Harvey Mudd or Columbia, so there is the “Road Not Taken” feeling… but no regret.</p>
<p>Top choice: Wharton at UPenn.</p>
<p>both for me. Applied both UMichigan and UChicago. However UChicago is totally the one i wanna attend!!</p>
<p>My daughter did ED at a liberal arts school that was “barely” her first choice. She got in and will graduate in May. She pretty much spent the first two years figuring out what she “didn’t” want to major in and settled for a major and minor she could live with. I’m not sure if she would have got in regular at this school. She has suffered through being in the 30-35th percentile at a place which is very competitive and demanding. Her GRE scores reflect she has been well educated, but her barely 3.0 GPA has created a hurdle for her next steps in her education. She has found her nitch her senior year and knows what she wants to do and is now applying for a second BS in a pretty specialized area not offered at any liberal arts college.</p>
<p>We begged her to transfer, but she has adored her school and her friends and knows the liberal arts education will help her in her future. We don’t disagree with this, but she is learning the lesson of having to pay for the next degree all on her own.</p>
<p>Child #2 was just deferred by his absolute, no holds bar, first choice. Nothing else even compared. It seems he needs to prove to the school he can continue to be #1 in his class [unweighted 4.0] taking 5 AP classes [including AP Chem and Physics simultaneously], where his high school restricted students from taking any AP classes until one’s junior year [and he will have exhausted all but AP Art by the time he graduates]. They would also appreciate he get one more 800 on an SAT II Subject test. </p>
<p>So did we game the system for the first one and got gamed on the second one? I’m not certain. I’m also not certain if the competition that posts outrageous off the charts numbers and in such quantities that one questions if they ever sleep is the type of competition my #2 would want to be compared to day in and day out. </p>
<p>Makes me wonder if ED needs to disappear entirely…</p>
<p>Why should ED disappear entirely?</p>
<p>BTW, a full third of the class is at the 35th percentile or less. Someone has to be.</p>
<p>Three years ago my son applied ED to a highly selective college he really liked. Honestly, there were 3 or 4 excellent schools that he liked pretty equally, but we decided on an ED app to give him his best shot at the one that provided the best need-based FA (at the time – subsequently a couple of the others changed to a similarly generous policy).</p>
<p>He will graduate in 2012, and he just loves his college. So it was both a top choice and a pragmatic choice for us because he needed so much aid to attend.</p>
<p>Like Wudman’s daughter, although he was a top student during his high school years, he’s at a college with the best and brightest and there he’s hanging on to his B-range GPA not without a good deal of anxiety and effort. No regrets, though. Being a B student at a school like that is nothing to sneer at. And he’s had a fantastic college experience there and is growing up to be an excellent young man.</p>
<p>He knows he doesn’t want to pursue a career in academia, and will probably not go on to an academic graduate program. It isn’t what he wants. That being the case, I don’t think his good-but-not-great GPA is going to be a huge factor in where his life goes from here.</p>
<p>In retrospect, applying ED to this reachy school that has given him an excellent education, a brilliant growth experience, and the aid to enable him to graduate without loans was a most excellent decision.</p>
<p>I think ED is a great option, if you know exactly what you’re getting into. Most schools warn you specifically that you should only sign the agreement if it is genuinely your “top choice,” and ED applicants need to take those two words seriously. School A may seem like a good fit and your credentials may seem good enough for acceptance, but if School B seems more appealing (regardless of how competitive it is), then don’t apply ED to School A. If you can’t determine a genuine top choice, don’t apply ED anywhere. I agree that ED can relieve stress and make the process easier, but it should by no means be a compromise. RD may involve more applications to fill out and fees to pay, but the few extra months of stress now are worth ensuring a happy four-year experience.</p>
<p>I can relate to this . . . is that wrong??</p>
<p>Our son’s ED was a (maybe low?) reach he decided he liked most of all the schools where he had any chance at all. He did say several others would be fine too, so it’s possible that if he’d waited till RD and been accepted at all of them he’d have chosen somewhere else, but I think that’s unlikely, and it seems to us that he made the right decision. One key indicator is that he has absolutely no regrets, and is already talking about plans for next fall.</p>
<p>I applied ED to Duke, which was ABSOLUTELY my first choice. I honestly would choose it over any other school in the country…Yes, that means I would choose it over HYPSM. I was deferred, and it sucks. There are schools I’m applying to RD where, had I applied ED, I would likely be admitted. I have absolutely NO REGRETS about applying to my dream school ED. “Shoot for the moon, and even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.”</p>
<p>I applied ED to my favorite school - my dream school - because I love it, not to game the system. As of this moment I do not know the decision, but I have no remorse if it is an acceptance. My only remorse will be if I am denied that I did not take harder classes my first two years. In my school many kids applied to Ivies ED, I’m not sure if they were their dream schools or their reach schools they wanted to try to get accepted in ED. Only one was accepted. Maybe in a couple of years I’ll be able to reflect on my choice, but I still feel like this is my dream school and its a fit for me.</p>
<p>I understand where he is coming from. I (possibly misguidedly; I really don’t know for sure anymore) almost applied ED to Cornell because I saw the high acceptance rate in the ED round. I do adore the school, but MIT is my dream school. I almost made the same choice as the OP mentions, and theres a decent chance I would be bound to Cornell. Granted, I was deferred from MIT, so I may end up being rejected anyway, in which case an acceptance to my second choice Cornell would not be particularly bad.</p>
<p>In any case, I agree with the second commenter, who noted that the student was improperly advised. ED should really be reserved for one’s top school, if even that. The truth is that most people don’t really know their top college as much as they think they do. There’s always a possibility for “buyer’s remorse”, and its what makes ED so scary.</p>
<p>Food for thought: Sister was accepted to her first choice Oberlin ED. She had to withdraw her other applications, which ruined her when she ultimately found that she couldn’t afford Oberlin. She is now at the University of Houston, an unglamorous 10 miles from the house she’s lived in her whole life.</p>
<p>My son hadn’t planned to apply ED because he hadn’t made his mind up by October where he really wanted to go. By Christmas, and after he finished most of his applications, he began to get rather excited about Pomona. They have EDII, and he went for it because he thought it would increase his chances, being a small LAC. He really wanted to stay in California, and he thought he’d prefer a small school, as his high school was small and he had thrived there. Of all the Cali schools, it seemed the best fit.
While he still had to fill out his other apps and later had to withdraw them, it was worth it knowing in February where he was going. It was a pragmatic decision but it turned out for the best. While he wasn’t “in love” when he applied, he was by the time he graduated four years later.</p>
<p>I applied ED to the University of Pennsylvania - Wharton and was accepted! It was definitely my first choice.</p>
<p>Ahhh. I was going to apply ED to U Penn’s M&T program since it was and still is my absolute number one choice, but it was two of my friends’ dream school since…pretty much forever. In the end, I decided not to apply because I’d read that since the program was so selective, ED wouldn’t really increase my chances that much anyways and also because at the time, they were two of my closest friends, and I don’t think they would’ve ever forgiven me on the off chance I was accepted over them. So I applied to MIT early action instead, which was one of my top choices right after U Penn and Harvard (everyone’s secret dream school that they don’t care to admit, right?) But now…well I’m very grateful to have been accepted to MIT early as my grades have dropped so much I don’t even know if I should bother with regular decision. The two schools that I might’ve chosen over MIT are now almost entirely out of my reach, and looking back, I can’t help but regret having not applied ED. Regardless of whether or not I would’ve been accepted, had I applied, I would’ve at least had a definite answer: acceptance or rejection (or even in the case of deferral, at least more definite of an answer than not knowing at all). One of my two friends was ultimately accepted, and now, even though I’m extremely happy for him, I can’t help but feel jealous.</p>
<p>I hate the idea of ED. </p>
<p>This kid in my class applied to Columbia ED this year. 800 V / 700 M, Legacy, Hispanic, Athlete, excellent essays and recommendations. He got in. But he got no financial aid whatsoever, and now, since he has to go and his family is not extremely wealthy, he’ll graduate with $120,000 worth of loans. </p>
<p>Whereas I’ll graduate from Chicago EA with, at most, $25,000 worth of loans. And UChicago is a much better school anyways. </p>
<p>All because I chose not to apply anywhere ED and he did.</p>
<p>i actually think that ED is a great idea, because it allows incredibly anxious students to get into a school, calm down, and enjoy their senior year. college app stress took its toll on me- i couldn’t sleep, i couldn’t eat, i couldn’t think. i was just too worried about the possibility that i would end up in april with not a single acceptance letter-- the prospect of this was terrifying. i applied ED to my top choice- columbia. i didnt think it was a compromise or anything- i love it, from its location to its curriculum. it’s the perfect place for me, and im glad i got in. looking back though, one of the main reasons that i didnt wait for RD and apply to harvard, yale, and princeton was that i wanted to be locked in somewhere and feel safe knowing i had some security.
also, you guys make it sound as though ANYBODY is a shoe-in if he applies early decision. please. just check out the decisions threads for columbia and yale etcetc. 2300+, 4.3+, amaaazing EC people are straight up rejected.</p>