We had evaluated NYU Stern as much harder to get compared to USC Marshall (new ED1) or UT Austin McCombs. We know students with 3.7gpa at USC or UTA and didn’t know any at NYU. My recommendation was to skip McCombs and try Mays (TAMU) but he chose to gamble for UTA.
NYU is the only Econ program that he wanted to ED, most other apps have Econ as secondary major. That tells me he loves NYU. I guess you are right, he will RD to NYU no matter the odds irrespective of my recommendation. We expect ED2 should increase the odds, If it doesn’t we might as well stay RD.
Babson has <3K undergrads, he wont consider very small schools.