does not applying for financial aid help at all?

That NY one will have good info and should be well attended. Last year’s was a really nice event, according to those who were there. At several (all?) of these in or around early Feb. last year they shared the number of total early applications, the % of acceptances and what proportion was ED. They didn’t break apps into ED vs. EA and it would be too optimistic to expect them to give out that information this year because then - voila! - ED and EA accept rates! Going under the theory that it’s still easier to get in ED, it’ll be really interesting to know how many EA’s they accepted this year. Last year it was 400.