an intention to attend if accepted, the school can "pinpoint the smallest amount of financial aid it will take for the student to attend." The applicant who is sensitive to financial aid may suffer from the likelihood of the aid amount being less than the expected amount. Several reports confirm that early decision applicants tend to come from wealthier families. A contrasting view is that by applying earlier in the year, the accepted ED students have "first crack at the money," particularly at competitive schools without large endowments. In any case, if a highly desirable ED admittee may withdraw because of financial concerns, the college "may pull out all the stops" to prevent this, and that the possibility of backing out for financial reasons gives an applicant some form of negotiating leverage. Universities with very large endowments may be unique in their ability to provide aid equally generously to students regardless of their application plan. Benefits for colleges Schools which offer early decision benefit from a near certainty that the applicant will attend if admitted. As a result, the admission yield is increased by admitting more students at the ED stage. The timing of the ED process also helps admissions offices spread the work of sifting through applications throughout more of the school year. A number of schools which had EA plans have recently added ED plans to EA (Chicago and Tulane from Class of 2021 on, Virginia from Class of 2024), or have switched to ED and jettisoned EA (Boston College from Class of 2024 on). Some college counselors speculate that ED can serve to mitigate the problem of students failing to matriculate to a particular school in favor of a "superior" one. For example, one college might only admit a candidate deemed qualified for another, 'superior' college under ED, for in regular decision, should that student be admitted to the 'superior' competitor, that student would be unlikely to attend the college that originally offered the ED admission. Admit rates and enrollment statistics Applying early decision brings a greater statistical chance of being accepted, possibly doubling or tripling the chances of an acceptance letter. This is usually attributed to three factors: first, candidates who apply "early" can only present colleges with their transcripts until the end of junior year of high school and therefore must be particularly strong applicants with very persuasive transcripts; second, candidates who apply "early" have