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Took the LSAT 3 times (169,172,cancelled score)
3.86 GPA
Softs: 3 years work experience
Research Internship with an intergovernmental organization in Europe
business level fluency in Japanese

I applied 2 years ago and got waitlisted at both Harvard and Columbia, but both schools ended up rejecting me in the end. Stanford and Yale rejected me outright (no big surprise there). I was originally planning on attending another T14 school that did accept me, but due to family circumstances, I decided to postpone law school a couple years and reapply.

I'm planing on reapplying this coming cycle and am trying to determine whether I should apply ED at Columbia or keep my options open on the slim chance that either Harvard or Stanford accepts me. I'd love to end up working in the bay area, so Stanford is my dream school, but I'd be VERY happy if I were able to get into Columbia and think I have a pretty good chance at getting in if I ED. I'm also not sure how my 2 retakes on the LSAT will affect my application so I don't fully trust the calculators.

Any advise would be appreciated.
(also, I'd appreciate it if you don't quote this post. I plan on deleting the specific details once I make my decision)
Thanks in advance.

First, if your heart is not set on Columbia, then why ED there?

Also, while your numbers may be CCN worthy, I'm not sure how they view re-applicants - likely they don't care as long as your numbers are good - but hopefully your WE is strong. Good luck.

I wouldn't ED unless CLS is your clear top choice. Even if it is, why not keep options open for $ at peer schools like Chicago and NYU (which you can use to negotiate with CLS if CLS admits you but gives you less $)? Depending on what you want to do, Berkeley might not be a bad option, either.

Had a 172 (on a retake)/3.88 . Got in RD with $$. Also admittted to NYU, Chicago $$$,UPenn$$ ,UVa $$$, Duke $$. Waitlisted at SLS. So if you really love CLS and don't need any money ED is ok but I am glad I didn't do it because Chicago was remarkably, unbelievably generous to me. PM me if you want further insights. Good luck