I agree with everything but the number “one.” There are a number of other schools that you can apply to early. The most common use is a state flagship (e.g., DS applied concurrently to Yale and Michigan EA). So, in DS’s case, he got to apply at the same time to one “reach” and one “match,” increasing the chances that he would be able to feel less pressure to apply, apply, apply during his senior year. As it happened, he got lucky 