Chance me Columbia ED [3.85 GPA, 36 ACT, philosophy pre-med]

Based on everything you described in terms of your school’s recent history of college placement and where you fit in, it sounds like your grades place you sort of on the fringe of Ivy+ admissions chances for unhooked applicants.

And while this is not exactly insightful, that could be better, and it could be worse! Which I assume you already had figured out yourself in fact.

Assuming your family can comfortably afford Columbia, it is your favorite, and you would have no interest in comparing offers (including merit scholarship and/or honors offers), I don’t see a problem with you choosing to ED Columbia. Again I assume you are aware that Columbia gets a LOT of ED applications, and only a small percentage of those will end up admitted to Columbia. But under the conditions above, there is no harm in giving it a shot.

Of course if you don’t get admitted to Columbia, I am confident you could still get admitted to many great colleges, indeed possibly with merit/honors if you choose to pursue such offers. So hopefully you are prepared to apply to a robust list of such colleges in the event Columbia rejects or defers you.