For your schools at the “match” level, they take a lot of kids early decision. The acceptance rate at ED time is often twice as high as RD. In other words: If you don’t reach, your matches are matches in the ED round. However, they quickly turn into reaches in the RD round where acceptance rates are much lower, especially with another year or two of the college admissions arms race going by before you apply. Colleges really like to take kids ED as they don’t have to worry about whether or not the kid will come if accepted. As kids apply to more and more schools, the “definitely enrolling” kids become very attractive recruitment prospects.
So, go visit some schools and see what you think. Since you don’t need financial aid, you can really take advantage of ED. If you reach “just a little” and not too high, you can wrap up the college search early and be signed up for your first choice school rather than writing more essays over Christmas break.