“Your chances at the ED round are significantly higher than those at RD. As an example, for Penn slightly more than 1/2 the class was already selected during the ED round – 1319 out of a final count of approximately 2500.”
It’s not about some rootless mathematical calculation. It’s about COMPLETELY DIFFERENT APPLICANT POOLS.
The contest in the Early Round is fundamentally different from the contest in the Regular Round for the most selective colleges, which is where the OP wants to apply. Approximately half of the ED applicants to highly selective colleges are already Hooked applicants, meaning that given their special categories, the criteria for their admission is differs markedly from the standards for non-Hooked students. Smart Hooked students are aware of their advantage in applying Early, because this is the specific round during which colleges seek those hooked students. Period.
And smart non-hooked students who know that they will be looked at as qualitatively different from merely high scorers and those with high grades (a dime a dozen) also know that this is their “more sure” opportunity because the most selective colleges do not want to lose true super-stars during the early round, forfeiting the college’s opportunity to snag them before the Regular Round, when the field is larger and the offers from colleges plentiful.
“You should pose your question to your college counselor, if you haven’t done so already.”
I’m a college counselor.
Romeo, which do you prefer: Cornell or GA Tech? (For a program and for all other aspects, not just “name,” although naturally that would be a consideration also.) Cornell is excellent for business, but it would be the highest level college on your list I would seek, if I were you. Without more to your profile (unless you are leaving a lot out), and without significant additions to that profile later, I would not apply ED to Columbia or Penn. COMPARED TO THE OTHER NON-HOOKED APPLICANTS IN THAT PARTICULAR ROUND, you will look just Meh, and therefore will get deferred from those 2 colleges. For GA Tech, you’re a good bet for ED.