Great advice on this thread. Although my DD was admitted ED to an Ivy in December, I would never have considered her “Ivy material” looking at her class rank and GPA. She did have great leadership ECs with strong essays and fabulous teacher/counselor recommendations – all of which I believe collectively carried the day for her at the Ivy.
Her 10 other applications were to lower reach, match and safety schools that were a great fit for her and where she might receive merit money or qualified for in-state tuition.
We rarely talked about the ED Ivy school and were focused on visiting and “learning to love” her more realistic admit schools. We were actually visiting two of her “match” schools the very week she got her ED acceptance.