<p>sportswiz: Although the aggregate admissions rate for the school goes up 20% for ED, that does not mean that <em>your</em> admissions rate will go up 20%. For an example, the admissions to Columbia last year was 8%. That doesn’t mean that every single student had an 8% chance of getting into the school; it just means that for every 100 students 8 were admitted. Some students had very high chances of admissions because of their records and some had lower chances of admissions.</p>
<p>The application rate for ED goes up because ED students tend to be a driven, motivated, self-selecting group of students with higher stats and more ability to pay out of pocket for the college of their choice. Your chances for admission don’t magically go up if you apply ED, otherwise everyone would be applying early decision. As a matter of fact, one could say that your chances could go DOWN because the ED group is generally a more competitive group that would likely get in RD anyway. In addition to that, the method you’ve chosen (“research both, choose one, and apply ED”) is not what early decision was designed for. It was designed for students who are positive they want to go somewhere AND positive that they can pay for it and want to finish their application cycles early. If you need substantial financial aid at a school do not apply ED because it is not easy to get out of the contract.</p>