My general opinion is that a student should only apply ED if both of the following are true: (1) They have a school in mind that is their clear number 1 choice; (2) They are either fine being full pay, or have run the NPC and it fits their budget and both they and their parents are fine with the result. For anyone who is strongly considering a graduate program such as law school, “fits the budget” has to account for a full 7 year budget (or 8 year for anyone aiming for an MD, DO, or DVM).
It is not clear to me that you have a clear number 1 choice.
This can be a tough thing to quantify. There will be some unhealthy competition at any highly ranked university. I still remember one time missing what the assignment was in freshman physics class, asking a classmate who I had thought was a friend, and being told “I won’t tell you because I am hoping to do better than you in the class”. Fortunately two other students who were also in the same freshman physics class overheard this, and they did tell me what the assignment was. I think that this same thing could happen at a wide range of universities, but the competition is likely to be strong at either U.Penn or Columbia.
Again whether you will like this can be very tough to predict ahead of time.
At U.Penn, or Columbia, or MIT (where I went for undergrad) or Stanford (where I went for my masters) pretty nearly all of the students will have been near the top of their class in high school. Obviously most students are not going to be in the top of the class in university, and some students will be near the bottom of the class. It is tough to be in the top 10% of the class in high school and then find yourself in the bottom 30% or even 10% of the class in university.
I really do not know how a student can predict whether they are going to take to the higher pace and excel, or if they are going to find it to be too much. Some students may love it. Some might hate it. Some might love it part of the time and hate it part of the time. I had different results between undergrad and graduate school. I was older for graduate school, knew why I wanted to do it, and loved it.
This is something to think about.
If you do not apply ED anywhere, they you have more time to decide whether you want this for yourself as an undergraduate student.
This is very good. This will help you to get accepted to many very good universities. This does not make either U.Penn or Columbia likely. You definitely need to make sure that you are also applying to solid safeties that you will get accepted to, can afford, and would be happy to attend.