Is is possible to use the collegevine calculator to estimate the odds of acceptance through Early Decision?

Answered

There is an ED or EA option when you look at your CollegeVine College List but honestly, I do not think it is remotely accurate. I know I have played around with changing the admission cycle from EA, ED, RD, or Transfer and they all seem to be within 1-3% of each other. In reality, they can be 10-20% different depending on your hooks and which schools you are applying to.

Also keep in mind that if a hard school has a 5% RD admit rate and a 15% ED admit rate, that doesn't mean it's 3 times easier to apply ED for that school.

If it's an Ivy or Stanford, the higher EA/ED admit rates have more to do with institutional priorities like admitting legacies, recruited athletes, VIPs, fac Brats, and donor kids. Also, many hard schools admit low-income, first-gen applicants through Questbridge and other community-based service groups. And in all cases the EA / ED pool is always filled with a higher percentage of highly qualified applicants versus the more diluted RD pool. So if the school is 5% RD and you have ZERO hooks, then it's probably 5% for EA/ED as well.