Back when admissions was simpler… ED 1 only, EA, Rolling schools, Regular Decisions. I did feel that EA was a trap. I would claim to others it was at best a neutral and sometimes even an admissions disadvantage. Now, I am back at EA likely being a neutral. I use to say, “why would they be giving you an advantage if you are not giving anything to them.” This was 20 years ago and that is why I asked the question.
I will bet dinner that many of the EA colleges have detailed diagnostics on their “summer melt” and have observed that EA admits “melt” at a significantly lower rate than their RD admits.
Another factor. Yes, they all have waitlists, and yes, everyone knows that you aren’t going to the University of Pancake House if you get into Stanford off the wait list.
But given the unpredictability of managing yield, number of beds, enrollment, etc. if the EA kids commit (even if they commit on April 30th) and then tend NOT to melt- that in and of itself is a good, solid, rational reason to embrace EA on the part of the colleges.
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I would vote for an earlier cutoff, e.g 12/15 (or at least note each specific date in the list). If you have to wait for 12/31 you’re still doing 100% of the RD application work in preparation. Unless you’re a true masochist 
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