<p>Personally, I think all this ED, EA stuff is for the birds. There are a lot of very inequitable things that occur in that process on both sides of the fence. My solution would be to go to a national application deadline of January 1, with notification by Feb 15 by the schools and you are either admitted or put on the waiting list. Then after the May 1 accept/decline offer date, the schools can let you know what number you are on the wait list. </p>
<p>With the proliferation of the common application, kids are now applying to 15 or more schools frequently and they really only have the intention of accepting one to three of their top choices, depending on who takes them. So they are receiving 10 or more acceptance offers and dumping 9 of them. What happens is a nightmare for parents, students and admissions officers alike. Now colleges are reporting record applications knowing that they will be “admitting” tens of thousands of kids who will turn around and “reject” them. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, kids who really want to go somewhere get “bounced” by kids who have no intention of accepting an offer of admission at that school.</p>