OP should talk to parents, both of them, and find out what they are willing and able to pay if no financial, no merit money is forthcoming. @thumper1 is absolutely correct, that this is not a clean situation
However, financial aid packages can vary widely. One of kid’s fiancée got an aid package of $30k more from Duke than from Amherst , with numbers all over the place in between. She, too, had complexities, a non custodial parent due to divorce, property, a family business, and a sibling in college at a state school. All of those factors were evaluated differently by the schools. Then, there was merit thrown into the mix.
Where the disadvantage with ED comes into play, is that you cannot compare financial aid offers and negotiate. Yes, you can negotiate , showing one school what a like School offers in aid, which was what this young woman did, and did get a reassessment from Amherst. Had she applied ED to Amherst, she would have had to take it or leave it, since she would not have had Duke’s fin aid package in hand.