<p>These are the choices one has to make with all of the rules and limitations. I don’t think Harvard deliberately makes EA more of an advantage. It’s just inherent. When you are the first perfect SAT scorer, the first one with the dying grandpa essay, the first classics major when they need some, the first oboist, you are more likely to be accepted than in the regular season when there are stacks with the same thing you have and the admissions folks can choose. Many who get turned down for Harvard are just as strong in profile as those who don’t.</p>
<p>I advocate going with the true first choice. One year my son’s highschool had about 10 kids accepted to Harvard, early. Yes, ten. Some kids who played your game did not get in RD–no one did, by the way from that school, and they wonder to this day if they would have been accepted had they done so. They chose to play it safe and apply to Wharton, I remember and some other schools, and they did get accepted, their gamble worked, but they got some of that joy erased by the thought that they were just as “up there” as classmates who got in early at Harvard because they took that chance. </p>