Anonymous wrote:2546/5527 men were admitted for Fall 2020 entry, that’s like 46% admit rate for males, 595 enrolled. His chances might be pretty good especially if he does ED1
Chances are good if like OP your stats are in range (stats for men don't seem to be that different from women, but the acceptance rates are higher), but still need a safety. But if you do ED1, you will know the result before RD for other schools. A common thing to do in NoVA is that if you like W&M over UVA but like both, do W&M ED1 and UVA and other targets EA and choose a safety with rolling admissions. (Though if you think your GPA will go up with Senior Fall grades, wait for RD for UVA as they are very GPA focused).
But the main point is that you get your results on your key targets and favorites before you choose your safeties. If you get in to W&M, you don't have to think anymore. But if you don't, in my kids and their friends' experiences, the choice of new targets and safeties sort of gets shuffled all again. Kids who couldn't find other targets/safeties they liked suddenly found many. That they now loved even better than W&M! (human nature!) So having a lot of potential safeties lined up--seeing their requirements etc. is essential, but they don't have to select them or yet love them until the results from ED are in--as long as they are able to block some time in for apps between finding out ED Dec 15 and applying Jan 1, or have done more prep work before.