@SlackerMomMD : I guess I think that once the student accepts an offer of admission from Harvard and thereby commits to attend, they’ve concluded that it’s their first choice and have “limited themselves to Harvard”. I’m just suggesting they go through the ranking process earlier, when they apply. Are they really expecting to get any new information between late fall / early winter and early spring of their senior year that could influence their decision process? If not (leaving financial aid issues aside), I don’t see a clear reason why they can’t decide a little earlier which school is #1 for them, if it’s in the collective interest and everyone has to do it. It’s human nature to want to preserve options for as long as possible, but this creates a negative externality, as the economists say.
Anecdotally, I agree that the prep schools generally limit the number of applicants students may submit, but I don’t think that those limits - generally 10 - 15, from what I can see - help much (I don’t think many students are going to submit more than 15 applications anyway). That said, the prep school guidance counselors tend to be highly engaged in the process and ensure that the students apply to a good number of targets and safeties, because it’s a disaster for them (I think more so than for many public school college counselors) if a kid gets in nowhere. I’ve heard a lot of stories about the parents and kids being shocked in the first meeting when the counselor shows them the Naviance data and tells them that they need to apply to a number of schools that they would otherwise never have considered.