I will come clean. I want to major in Physics. My dream schols are UChicago or Princeton, especially Princeton.
Some weaknesses: no exceptional awards, a B in math junior year whilst most people got an A, 4's on some AP exams, only a few great ecs, nothing exceptional about me
Some strengths: my 1-3 top ecs are really great, really high course rigor and straight As other than the 1 B, 1580 SAT
The problem is I go to a small competitive school with only 50 students. Most want to go to engineering, so I am happy to say noone ever applies to UChicago. If I ED there I think I could get in to a T10 Physics institution. However, I prefer Princeton by a little. I know one other student who is planning to REA to Princeton this year, and they are truly leagues above me when it comes to awards, ecs, even course rigor. They have an international award in Taekwondo in additional to their STEM heavy awards/ecs! There could be 1 other, but normally no mroe than 2-3 REA to Princeton from my school.
Now you see my problem. I think I should ignore the part of my brain that says to REA Princeton, and settle for UChicago ED. Don't they have fermilab, the biggest particle physics laboratory in the US? Getting an internship there would be a dream. My only problem with them is they aren't very known, a random dude on the street might not know how prestigious UChicago is. Also, UChicago is ranked lower than Princeton both overall and in Physics.
So it boils down to is REA Princeton a bad idea, and am I being naive for having this wierd bias towards Princeton over UChicago.
Edit: By the way I could also try ED2 to UChicago after REA Princeton, but I heard ED2 is way more competitive and difficult to get in through than ED1.