<p>I’m not saying DON’T do EA… I just think it’s pretty overrated. After seeing this process from many sides, I’m almost positive it doesn’t improve your chances in any real way. I suppose finding out early is nice, but you still have to do your other applications (since you find out the early results too late to put off your other applications until then.) One decent way to use EA is to apply to schools you like but not more than life itself, kind of for practice. If you get in, great – you have (presumably excellent) backups. If not, you’ve figured out how to do an application to your best advantage.</p>
<p>This is just my personal rambling and different ways might work for different people.</p>