Your son sounds like a family member of mine who had a number of top choices, wanted to ED to be done early, and choose the school where she statistically had the best change of being accepted. She’s graduating this year from that ED school and has zero regrets.
IMO, if the school where your son has a hook is one of his top choices, and is affordable, I’d ED there and not give it a second thought.
This encourages me because it shows he’s thought about fit and is not just going after name, which is something that often seems to drive “tactical” ED decisions.
For perspective, students at prominent boarding schools tend to be counseled to at least consider strategy. St. Paul’s, for example, has said that “the College Advising Office routinely encourages students to think strategically about their early applications.”
If your kid would like to be done with the process by December, ED is the way to do that. At the end of the day, he’ll have to pick only one school. That can be before the ED deadline or it can be after the RD decisions are released.
Where I see a problem is if he loves school A but does ED at School B because he feels that maximizes his chances of getting into a competitive school. That is a strategy we see many kids considering, and imho, the one most likely to lead to regrets.
Or if he has no idea of what he wants and needs time to work that out, naming the top choice now is premature.
Lastly, if there is something happening before the RD deadline that could meaningfully change the application for the better - along the lines of a competition, for example- waiting makes sense.
I am less anti-ED than many of my fellow CC posters, and I think for lots of students, it can give them some breathing room senior year (if successful). But you have to be realistic about whether you are prepared to be bound to your decision earlier in the process.
ED definitely helps at at least one school on the OP’S list.
If a school is a top choice and there will be no “what ifs?” after acceptance, then go for it! I think it it is a good idea to ED in that scenario.
My S23 visited over a dozen schools, and out of all of them there was only 1 he didn’t like. He decided to ED to his favorite for the nominal admissions boost, although I wouldn’t say it was his ‘dream school’- just the one he liked more than the others. He’s said he would’ve been perfectly happy at any of the schools we toured. His ED choice has ended up being a great fit.
D26 wanted to do RD and it was a long, stressful senior year- especially the beginning of April when we had to scramble to buy plane tickets, visit her top choices and try to make a huge decision, all on top of preparing for AP tests and end of year activities. After going through both, ED was definitely less stressful. And I don’t think it needs to be a dream school, but it definitely needs to be a clear favorite so there aren’t regrets.
So I think those of us who have watched several application cycles unfold have seen a decent number of kids who thought this way at the time of applying ED end up having a different attitude once they were actually admitted ED, such that they don’t actually want to withdraw their other applications. Sometimes there is a financial component to it, like the reality that they and their family will not be able to look for less expensive options sets in. But sometimes they just realize there are other places they might well prefer, and they don’t feel great being forced to give up on those possibilities.
I think we have also experienced that it can be difficult convincing kids who are thinking this way at this stage that such a change in attitude could potentially happen to them.
But then others are in fact fine with it. Of course a lot don’t get into their ED college (including being deferred), which moots the issue. But others are in fact happy to withdraw their other applications once they get admitted ED.
So I don’t think it is always bad, but I do think of it as a risk factor, and I think a prudent kid would recognize it as something that could happen to them. But if they want to apply ED anyway, and the family is fine with the potential financial consequences, then OK.
This also happened with the college counseling at S24’s private feederish day school.
I was frankly not 100% comfortable with how they did it. This was one of the few situations where I was not sure the institution’s incentives were as aligned with the students’ best interests as I would like.
People on CC assume kids won’t regret that they didn’t ED somewhere (biggest factor here). This can happen, just like kids can regret EDing somewhere.
People on CC - by and large - don’t see value in “top 10s” over top “100s”
People on CC - by and large - don’t understand not waiting to see fin aid / merit
Your approach is valid IMO and widely taken by people in independent HS and looking to attend schools with <10% acceptance rates, etc. You have to REALLY know your kid and their goals, etc. (that pesky regret).
Truthfully, I myself did this (sort of - depends on how you define “dream”) I went back and forth on where to ED for awhile. I was very confident in my choice in the end, but I wasn’t ohhhing and ahhing over it for 3 years or anything! I never regretted it (I got in and was ecstatic). Basically, it was my favorite of the bunch, I was confident I would be happy there and knew there was an admissions boost.
I was talking to an intensely brilliant parent of an HS kid the other day they said “I just EDd to a top school way back when, and I think you will fall in love where you end up - trying to convince my kid to do the same.” They really want their kid to ED and be done with it. (Their kid is Ivy League applicant. This seemed a touch over the top (you can’t fall in love with ANYWHERE), but the point of letting perfect be the enemy of good is probably true. Will their kid fall in love with Yale or Princeton - honestly - probably.
My two cents is this is one of many things in selective college admissions where any attempt to lay out “rules” for every applicant to follow is doomed. Just WAAAAY too many different factors that vary by kid and family to make that sort approach sensible.
So what we can do that is actually productive is try to help kids and parents better understand the nuances, the tradeoffs, the risks, and so on. And then they can make an informed choice that makes sense for them.
If this school has ED, I would go for it. This is a high stakes game and everything is stacked against the students, so maximize all odds when you can. However, it this is a SCEA/REA school, there is no significant admissions boost for an early application. He can still try it, but he would be foregoing the chance to ED somewhere else. Then comes the risk and unpredictability (including some yield-protection rejections) of the RD phase…
I have a tale of two ED applications that speaks to this sentiment. My D23 was rejected from her ED school, which of course was a tough experience, but it turned out to be a a good thing, because her thinking continued to evolve over the course of the application cycle. In the end, she had lots of choices (which was an ego boost after the ED rejection), and by the time she made her decision, she was fully on board and hasn’t looked back. Her college turned out to be as perfect for her as I could have imagined.
My S26 was accepted to his ED school, which was as close to a dream school as you could get - by which I mean that he did have other schools on his list that he really liked and would have been happy to attend, but this was his absolute favorite. So – great news! BUT – it was still very hard to pull his EA applications, because doing so had a sense of finality for which he was not prepared. And most of those EA schools were not top choices (a couple would have been contenders had things worked out differently) – but pulling the trigger was still hard.
I think that kids this age have generally not been in a position in which making one life-changing choice means permanently and definitively closing off other options. They will face a lifetime of these kinds of choices, of course, but when it’s the first time they have to do it, it feels strange. I think that’s part of the reason that ED triggers complex and unexpected emotional responses, even when an acceptance is really good news.
But we see just as many kids that regret their choice in September after choosing in April. The fact is some kids will choose “wrong” regardless of when they choose. People change just as much their first year of college as they do their last year of high school (at least mine did). A bit different, but it reminds me a bit of the discussions of finding out the sex of the baby while pregnant or waiting until birth. I never understood the “wanting it to be a surprise” reasoning- isn’t it a surprise regardless of when you find out? I guess we are a get it done with and find out as early as possible family 
. But I think there is a chance of regret regardless of when the decision is made.
I completely agree there is no point by which we know all kids will have made a good decision. I am personally not all that adverse to transferring, because I know that has been necessary for some kids who ended up at the wrong sort of college for them.
Still, I think you can think in terms of loading the odds in your favor. Lots of stuff is going on senior year in HS, and I do think lots of kids are rapidly evolving their sense of their abilities, their interests, their goals, and so on. Again that process may continue, in some sense should continue, for not just months but years more. But I think senior year of HS can be a particularly dynamic period for many kids.
That being said, I am typically a little less concerned about a kid who has, say, identified a particular academic program at a particular school in a particular location they really prefer. Yes, that can, maybe even likely will, change eventually, but I get that they will probably be excited to at least start that way.
I am actually more skeptical of the kids who claim each of like four or five schools are all equally good in their view. Again, not that this couldn’t be true in any case, I just think that sounds consistent with not really having gone through the full process of reflecting on what you really want your four-year college experience to end up being. Like, I see a lot of kids who think this way get to the post-offer visit stage, and suddenly they do form strong preferences.
And again, I acknowledge that also may not be a final answer anyway. But I think it is farther along the reflective process than where they were at the point they were applying.
This sounds a lot like my daughter - including the high stats and ecs that would make her a solid applicant anywhere. She embraced ED early. She knew herself and knew she wanted to be done and spend her senior year not stressing about college decisions. There were 2-3 strong contenders - one she ruled out as she watched multiple admission cycles as the school took athletes and zero valedictorians or other of the top academic students. She figured it was an extreme long shot and didn’t love it enough to even apply as she’d seen the writing on the wall. The other two she wavered between, but after visits decided she’d take the ED boost vs REA long shot. She absolutely loved being done in December and had no problem pulling apps.
There are a ton of merit hunters here so it skews the advice. I agree with previous posters that despite all the “there’s no boost” it’s a highly used strategy by private high schools.
Best of luck to your student. And I’ll say having watched my daughter agonize over PhD offers when she’s a lot older and wiser - I’m even more sure April senior year would have been a nightmare without ED.
And as another counterpoint - C26 had a favorite school in mind for at least a year and if the school had offered ED they would have applied and never looked back (accepted EA so would presumably have been in a hypothetical ED). In the interim however they became more interested in another school that admitted them and now has committed to that school. This isn’t a case where they would have regretted ED school A (because they wouldn’t have looked more closely at school B after that) but it does go to the point that the “one and only dream school” idea is malleable.
I think most students would be fine at most universities, so I like your son’s approach.
Still, I am unsure about the statistical benefits of ED. At highly selective institutions, 10-12% of all students are recruited athletes. They are all told to apply ED. The same with legacies, the same with the children of rich/famous/connected people and the same with the children of major donors….who all know they are a lock. Is there really a benefit? I don’t know.
I think for the right kid ED can be a great tool. Knowing definitively early has huge advantages IMO. I had one of each - and my ED kid had a much happier senior year. She loved and thrived at her ED school and it was definitely the right call for her. Do I - her mother - wonder if she would have been accepted at some others? I do; I don’t think she does. I don’t think she cares because she knew the school she attended was a really good fit for her. I guess that is the biggest question - will he regret not knowing if he could have gone to one of the others on his list. My non-ED kid had a really tough time deciding. She would have been much better off with an ED situation. Again, it’s a know your kid thing. I think people here tend to be very anti ED but I strongly believe for my kid it was 100% the right call. Doing due diligence ahead of time is key - visiting, making sure it is the right fit, getting comfortable that he would be happy there. But, once done, I would not hesitate for him to ED if that is his choice.
This is extremely helpful. Thank you! Perspectives from parents who’ve had students try both paths, ED and RD, truly helps me imagine the complexity of ED for parents like me who’ve only done RD. My S27 has spent a lot of time on the campuses of two of his top four schools and those are the two he feels most confident about as ED contenders. The other three, one ED and two REA, are much harder odds and he has no illusions that his stats and ECs can carry the day at these schools. I know it seems unbelievable but he truly does not have a favorite and has done a deep dive on all of these schools. He sees value in all of the schools and says there’s no such thing as a perfect school. He’d take issue with the idea of perfection generally. He’s more pragmatic and analytical about the process than our older child-not into the hype of prestige except that he wants the most challenging academic environment he can find. So I’m fairly certain he won’t harbor regrets if he did ED. He would also never consider not pulling his other applications if he were accepted ED. I suspect he’d love the feeling of being done with the process and moving forward to other projects.
So if it helps, I think as parents we tend to have different roles at different phases. At an early phase, we might be helping suggest important considerations, options not yet considered, and so on. But as the kid narrows in on a particular strategy, we may well transition to more of a combined administrative support and cheerleader role.
My point is if you are confident your kid has thought things through carefully and decided on a strategy that makes sense for them (not the only possible strategy, but one of them), you may well be ready to switch into admin/cheerleader mode. And that is fine!